MPs talk trees

Politicians continue to wade into the row over Auckland’s threatened kauri. After Labour’s New Lynn MP David Cunliffe threatened to scale the Titirangi tree in a bid to save it from being felled, Mt Roskill MP Phil Goff proposed a law reform. He claims 2009 changes to the Resource Management Act removed blanket legal protection for heritage trees. But Environment Minister Nick Smith says he is wrong. ‘‘The rule didn’t exist prior to 2009 . . . The law . . . is quite appropriate and it gives council discretion.’’