The Answer Lies In The Soils

The Government’s policies are up against unintended consequences.

- Steve Bolton

At long last, the first of those billion trees has been planted and the Housing Minister may have found a way to raise money for those 100,000 new houses – but who’s this coming along with a clipboard and a “Not here, you don’t!” notice? Why, it’s the Notable Soils inspector.

This Government, however well-meaning, does seem to make life difficult for itself at every turn. In the compulsory jargon of the beltway, you’re supposed to “roll out” policies like ready lawn. The Ardern administration’s way is more like assembling a team of soap-opera storyliners, charged with providing a major cliffhanger and at least a couple of “Oh, no!” moments for every episode.

The new Notable Soils project guarantees no end of cliffhangers. It’s quite literally a new grass-roots sensible approach to land management, but it’s got “unintended consequences” written all over it. For years, those in the know have lamented that land that could sustain highly productive horticulture and other types of agriculture is being used for housing and lifestyle blocks. Environment Minister David Parker has asked for what’s called a National Policy Statement (NPS) on Versatile Land and High Class Soils, which aims to identify and sequester these precious tracts of prime horticultural land.

Parker has long had a bee – doubtless a busy fertilising one – in his bonnet about what he regards as our underinvestment in horticulture, which helps explain why he would park this new classification system in an NPS – a super-planning designation that can override all others.

So while it might be a blast to have one’s bit of dirt classified “high class” or notable, it’ll be a damned nuisance if one’s intention had been to develop it for housing rather than peonies or brussels sprouts.