Chief executive role floated for Mackenzie trust
A new chief executive could be appointed to manage an agreement designed to allow conservation and intensive farming to co-exist in the Mackenzie high country after mayor Graham Smith raised concerns it had ‘‘no teeth’’.
Mackenzie District mayor Graham Smith took the opportunity to raise his concerns about the Mackenzie Agreement, a collaboration established in 2013, when he met with Associate Conservation Minister Nicky Wagner on Tuesday.
‘‘We put to her the Mackenzie Agreement had no teeth. It hasn’t gone anywhere for five years.
‘‘It has only just released a strategy. It has been a great piece of collaborative work that hasn’t been able to be utilised,’’ Smith said.
Smith said Wagner, in response, suggested establishing a chief executive for the trust which administers the agreement to get more action from it.
‘‘They are looking at putting a CEO (chief executive officer) in to manage it,’’ he said.
However, he could not say if the role would be Government funded.
Wagner said the Government had already provided $200,000 ‘‘seed funding’’.
‘‘Now they have a strategy, they are in a far better position to see what they will need going ward,’’ she said.
Wagner would not be drawn on whether the Government would inject more cash into the trust.
‘‘Yes there are discussions going around about resourcing for them. It will be cross-sector resourcing.
‘‘In everything like this it is a collaboration and multi-agency so that is where the resourcing will be coming from,’’ she said.
When asked if there was money in the budget for the trust, Wagner said, ‘‘I am not guaranteeing anything but I am saying we are working on it and I think you will be pleasantly surprised’’.
Smith also wanted the Mackenzie District Council to be represented on the trust.
It is currently a signatory to the agreement.
‘‘We would probably feel, to get full benefit, we need to be part of it,’’ he said. for-