Wellington, May 14 – Other announcements in today’s budget:
* An extra $6.750 million a year from 1999/2000 would go to the upgrading and management of visitor structures, Conservation Minister Nick Smith announced.
This was on top of the $30 million previously provided for this.
Dr Smith said the new funding would help ensure the nearly 16,000 visitor structures the Department of Conservation managed were consistent with national standards.
Overall conservation funding increases from $189 million in 1997/98 to $199.5 million this year.
Dr Smith said the budget for pest and weed control had risen from $35.3 million last year to $40.6 million this year.
Funding for protected species and island habitats was increasing from $34.4 million in 1997/98 to $35.9 million in 1998/99. He announced earlier $1.125 million for marine reserves over the next two years.
How the money would be spent in each conservancy and on what programmes would be announced soon, he said.
* $3.2 million over three years has also been allocated in the budget to help manage the 3000 extra claims expected to come before the Disputes Tribunal. The monetary limit on claims that can come before the tribunal has been extended from $3000-$7500 to $5000-$12,000 when both parties agree.
* $2.1 million over three years to fund a new Institute of Judicial Studies. Minister for Courts Wyatt Creech said the institute would better coordinate continuing education, information and research services for judges and other judicial officers such as coroners and Justices of the Peace.
* Funding for the Land Tenure Reform Programme of South Island High Country Pastoral Leases was up 20 percent to $2.4 million for 1998/99.
Lands Minister John Luxton said it was intended to freehold more land capable of economic use while protecting land with conservation, historic, landscape and cultural and recreational values.
The programme allows lessees to purchase the Crown’s interest in land capable of economic use while the Crown purchases the lessee’s interest in land with significant conservation or recreational values.
* Maori Affairs Minister Tau Henare said Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993 (The Maori Land Act) would be reviewed. The review would cover the principles and policies of the Act and also address the role and jurisdiction of the Maori Land Court, Maori land tenure, land title system, succession, economic development and taxation status of relevant bodies under the Act.
The review would be carried out next year with an amendment introduced by April 1999 and passed by September 1999 at a cost of $2.8 million over three years.
Mr Henare also announced $2.5 million over the next two years for costs associated with the implementation of the Maori Reserved Land Amendment Acts.
* The budget for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) would be $4.3 million for 1998/99, up from $2.4 million, Energy Minister Max Bradford said.
A further $2 million had been allocated over the following two years to help EECA’s transition to focus on core activities and greater input from the private sector, he said.
Money for the Energy Saver Fund, a scme administered by EECA to provide grants for household energy efficiency projects, would decrease over the next two years to $2.5 million in 1998/99 and $2 million in 1999/2000.
* Finance Minister Bill Birch said amendments to the Farm and Fishing Vessel Ownership Savings Acts would free up funds for people with accounts under those schemes.
Mr Birch said the ownership saving schemes would be closed by June 30, 2001. People would be able to go on saving under existing conditions until then when they would receive all savings plus subsidies earned. From June 30, 1998, savers would be able to withdraw their funds without penalty or restriction, provided they closed their account.
Savers closing their accounts before June 30, 2001 would be entitled to all subsidies earned up to May 14, 1998.
Mr Birch said the schemes subsidise savings for first farm or fishing vessel ownership. New accounts were stopped in the late 1980s and total savings have decreased by 75 percent since then. He reviewed the schemes after account holders complained about the restrictions placed on their savings.
NZPA PAR sje 14/05/98 15-26NZ
