Trust can’t be trusted – farmers

The trust that looks after the Waituna catchment and lagoon in Southland has been told that it must keep the community better informed after accusations that it cannot be trusted.

Farmers in the Waituna catchment turned out in force to a public meeting last week to challenge the Whakamana Te Waituna Trust’s plans to spend more than $13 million in the area.

The trust had organised a drop-in session at the Gorge Road Country Club.

However, about 60 farmers and recreational users, some of whom had recently put in an Official Information Act (OIA) request to find out more about how the $13.3m would be spent, turned up armed with questions, and called for a meeting instead because of concerns about lack of consultation.

Waituna Farmers United chairman Ray McCrostie said he did not think trustees were listening to farmers in the catchment or treating them well.

Since the trust had been formed (in February) and gained funding from the Ministry of Environment, it seemed to have forgotten all about consultation with the catchment, he said.

People were concerned that the trust planned to spend an excessive amount of money on consultants, facilitators and contractors.

‘‘When you denigrate and trample on the mana of the farmers at the bottom of the catchment, as you have done by your actions, you insult all of us.

‘‘These actions in earlier times would have led our ancestors to war, because like Maori, farmers in this catchment have a deep attachment to the land.

‘‘The farmers of Waituna had been happy to work with Environment Southland to improve the water quality of Waituna Lagoon.’’

Following the meeting, Whakamana Te Waituna co-chair Lloyd McCallum, who was present, responded to some of the criticisms.

‘‘The community want to know more and that’s fair enough.

‘‘We want to tell them more.’’

He said there was the possibility of forming focus groups to give more in depth information about some of the trust’s objectives, including a higher lagoon level and changing the lagoon opening regime.

At the moment, a consent is held which allows the lagoon to be opened to the sea at 1.8 metres to 2m depending on conditions. The lagoon is ‘‘let go’’ to enable farm drainage, prevent flooding, enable fish passage and to flush the lagoon for ecological reasons.

But at the meeting, Waituna farmer Joanne Crack warned farmers several times that they ‘‘cannot trust the trust’’.

She said that she and husband Darrin had been misled by representatives.

The trust is made up of representatives from Environment Southland, the Department of Conservation, Living Water, Ngai Tahu, Southland District Council and Te Rununga o Awarua.

‘‘They have repeatedly told us one thing and then done another ...

‘‘Our farm is one of those affected by high lagoon levels. We need the lagoon opened at 2m to prevent flooding and damage to our drainage network.

‘‘The trust had indicated they wanted to buy the affected part of our farm. We said we would be happy to sell it but only at a fair price which would allow us to buy other land in the catchment.

‘‘Their offer was less than half valuation and we declined.’’

McCallum said there were some questions around this issue that could not be answered at the meeting because of commercial sensitivities.

He believed that much of tension resulted from one of the trust’s main objectives, which is to create a buffer zone around the lagoon, to separate it from the land, which would involve the trust buying land.

Some of the $13.3m given to the trust from the Government and various partners were earmarked for this purpose, he said.

The trust realised from the meeting that it needed to communicate with the community better to allay their fears, he said.

‘‘We did know this, but it was bigger than we thought – much louder.

‘‘The community wanted bigger discussion. We didn’t hear anything new but we heard quite strongly that people wanted more integration and consultation.’’

Between now and Christmas the focus would include creating ways to keep the community more informed, he said.

‘‘We’re more than happy to have those direct sort of interactions.’’