Twelve arrests as dairy protesters refuse to go
Police arrested 12 protesters demonstrating yesterday against a large dairy farm development in the Mackenzie Country.
Sergeant Mike van der Heyden said the protesters had been asked to leave the property but had refused. One had to be dragged away by police.
Police used bolt cutters and a disc grinder to cut the protesters free from the machinery they had been chained to since early morning.
A police spokeswoman said the protesters were taken to the Timaru police station and charges were likely.
Acting Mid-South Canterbury police area commander Inspector Natasha Rodley said officers tried to negotiate with protesters.
The Simons Pass property, just south of Lake Pukaki, is said to be the home of a variety of native flora and fauna, including the endangered black stilt (kakı¯).
Greenpeace sustainable agriculture campaigner Gen Toop said ‘‘for the sake of the Mackenzie and our rivers, industrial dairy expansion has to stop’’.
However, the land’s Crown leaseholder, Murray Valentine, said 40 per cent of the land on the dairy farm was being set aside for conservation.
He said they were at the end of a process which started in 2004.
‘‘We’ve seen a lot of legal hearings and all sorts of things that have gone on – all public – to get to where we’ve got to . . .
‘‘We are setting aside, in our plan, almost 4000 hectares of our 9500ha – that’s 40 per cent – which has been set aside for conservation.
‘‘We’re not going to farm it.’’ Valentine said the land had been set aside through an agreement reached with groups opposing the farm.
‘‘We’ve come to that agreement. Greenpeace have just sent people down to tie themselves to vehicles.’’
Greenpeace said their protesters locked themselves on to diggers and other machinery yesterday morning, disrupting construction of an irrigation pipeline for the proposed farm.
‘‘The dairy industry has polluted our rivers and our climate for far too long,’’ Toop said. ‘‘This latest incursion into the iconic Mackenzie Country shows just how extreme the industry has become,’’ Toop said.
Toop said the Government could protect the Mackenzie by banning new dairy conversions.
Mackenzie mayor Graham Smith said there had been immense pressure to have the development stopped.
‘‘It’s very hard to stop development once it’s got to this stage and those consents that he [Valentine] applied for happened many years ago and, to be absolutely fair, Murray Valentine has ticked a lot of the boxes that he was required to for development.
‘‘I think the major point a lot of people have missed is that in getting his consents, Simons Pass has given a significant amount of land to a dryland type park.’’
South Canterbury Federated Farmers president Jason Grant said the farm owners would be under pressure to look after any significant wildlife. He was confident the impact on native birds was going to be slim.
‘‘There’s still going to be a lot of native areas around . . . the owner of that farm is setting aside ground for native birds and native biodiversity.’’
Grant said the proposed farm covered a huge area of land, not all of which would be irrigated.
Forest and Bird regional manager for Canterbury and Westland Nicky Snoyink said it supported Greenpeace’s call for ending intensive farming in places such as the Mackenzie Basin.
‘‘Forest and Bird have fought hard for almost a decade against this type of destructive, intensive development and this sort of intensification has effectively destroyed the vast, brown landscape that New Zealanders know in the Mackenzie Basin.
‘‘The loss of those big, beautiful landscapes have contributed to the loss of habitats and lots of rare animals and plants.’’