Latest news with #PredatorFree2050
The Spinoff
7 hours ago
- General
- The Spinoff
We need to stop talking about cats and actually do something
Right now, the Department of Conservation is asking for feedback on the Predator Free 2050 strategy. The biggest question: should feral cats be added alongside rats, ferrets, stoats, weasels and possums? Allison Hess argues it's a no-brainer. Gareth Morgan kicked things off with his infamous Cats to Go campaign in 2013. He said things people didn't want to hear. Cats, he said, were 'serial killers' and 'nature's only sadists'. People absolutely lost the plot. He was immediately labelled a radical, a cat-hating Bond villain. When the Predator Free 2050 target species were chosen in 2016, feral cats were off the list, due to the fears of public backlash. The public wasn't ready, and the SPCA opposed it at the time. But a decade on, Morgan's once spicy take is looking… less radical. His campaign was inspired by the destruction cats were causing on Rakiura (Stewart Island) wildlife. Feral cats were the reason kākāpō were urgently translocated off the island in the 80s. It has been a constant battle to keep their numbers in check to protect the remaining wildlife on the island. Today the pukunui (southern NZ dotterel) is close to the brink, with only 105 birds remaining. The cat conversation Morgan dragged hissing and clawing into the public arena never went away. Journalists have nudged it along, sitting the public down for 'the talk' periodically. To name just a few stories, there have been Are there too many cats in NZ? (Stuff, 2016); Our love affair with cats (NZ Geographic, 2021); We need to talk about cats and wildlife (The Spinoff, 2022); We need to talk about cats (Newsroom, 2022) and Paddy Gower Has Issues: Feral cats are killing native birds, bats and even dolphins – so why are Kiwis so mad when we cull them? (Stuff, 2023). We've read story after story: cats eating 28 lizards in one go, destroying 87 black-fronted tern nests and wiping out robin populations. Today, the mood has shifted, and the conversation has matured. It's not cat lovers vs cat haters. The public has had a decade to digest what was once too controversial. Even the SPCA has changed its tune, admitting emotions clouded its decision-making back then, and it now supports the humane killing of feral cats. In a 2023 leaders' debate, Luxon and Hipkins both said feral cats should be included in the Predator Free 2050 strategy. And public opinion? A 2024 survey commissioned by the Predator Free NZ Trust found that 64% of New Zealanders thought we should actively reduce feral cat populations on public conservation land. Nearly 60% supported national legislation for microchipping and desexing of pet cats. Cats are a legal grey zone While all cats are hunters, companion cats are beloved members of households. Feral cats, on the other hand, live entirely independently of humans, with no home, no vet, no food bowl. They hunt to survive and breed freely. They're everywhere, from farmland to bush, even crossing the Southern Alps. They're here because we haven't had proper rules to prevent their existence in the first place. After the Cats to Go dustup settled down, it actually became clear that the interests of wildlife and cat welfare weren't so far apart. In a real enemies-to-lovers story line, the SPCA, Vets Association, Morgan Foundation and Companion Animals NZ shacked up to work together, forming the National Cat Management Group. The Predator Free NZ Trust later joined. But their attempts to introduce basic rules like nationwide desexing, registration and microchipping of pet cats have been batted away for years. These basics would help reduce kitten dumping, help return lost pets and slow the growth of stray and feral colonies, which are booming (in New Zealand there are an estimated 2.4 million feral cats, compared to 1.2 million pet cats). Unlike dogs, there is no law governing cat ownership and control. There is a hodgepodge of council bylaws, but cats have free rein of the country, are allowed to wander onto other people's property, and their owners aren't responsible for any damage they cause. The cross-sector group got close to something happening in 2023 when the environment select committee recommended creating a law. The current government said, 'Nah, not a priority.' So here we are again But now there's another opening to do something about cats. The Department of Conservation is asking if feral cats should be added to the Predator Free 2050 target species list. Feral cats are being controlled, but it's piecemeal. There's no national standard, no shared funding, no clear guidelines, limited research and poor outcomes for both cats and wildlife. When nothing happens at a national level, people take matters into their own hands, like the farmers in Canterbury who made international headlines with their feral cat culling competition. Leaving feral cats off the list undermines the whole Predator Free 2050 goal. If we leave out feral cats, we ignore one of the deadliest predators, and their control remains disjointed. Adding them to the list means setting national standards, investing in research and ensuring their removal is more humane, coordinated and effective. Feral cats shouldn't remain in the too-hard basket. We've had the conversation; it's time to do something with it.
NZ Herald
5 days ago
- General
- NZ Herald
Feral cats should join predator-free hit list, conservation groups say
Adding feral cats to the Predator Free 2050 list will fill a glaring hole, say conservation leaders. Photo / Predator Free NZ Feral cats should join rats and possums on the Department of Conservation's predator-free 2050 hit list, according to conservation leaders.
Newsroom
26-05-2025
- Business
- Newsroom
‘It was a bombshell': Govt culls pest eradication company
'This is the most ambitious conservation project attempted anywhere in the world,' Prime Minister John Key said in July 2016. 'But we believe if we all work together as a country we can achieve it.' Key announced the 'world-first' project for New Zealand to become predator free – free of rats, stoats and possums – by 2050. Conservation researcher Marie Doole, who back then worked as a senior policy analyst at Environmental Defence Society, says it was a rushed undertaking. 'John Key went and announced it, and then it was like, right, how do we do this?' By November 2016, Predator Free 2050 Ltd had been formed to funnel money into landscape-scale projects, and technological advances. Its initial budget was $28 million over four years. Conservation Minister Maggie Barry said at the time: 'This company and its leadership will be absolutely integral to the success of the Predator Free 2050 programme.' Fast-forward to Thursday's Budget, and the National-led coalition Government dropped the bombshell Predator Free 2050 Ltd was being disestablished, swept away in a cost-cutting drive. The timing of the cut was curious, as it's in the middle of the Government's strategy review of Predator Free 2050, submissions for which close on June 30. It was also announced on the international day for biological diversity. Predator Free 2050 Ltd chief executive Rob Forlong confirms he and 13 staff, and its four directors, were told the same day as the Budget. 'It was a bombshell for us and for the company itself' Jessi Morgan, Predator Free New Zealand Trust Conservation Minister Tama Potaka says closing the company will save $12.6m in operating costs over four years. 'The predator-free projects and contracts funded by the company are not affected,' Potaka says. 'We are committed to the predator-free 2050 goal.' Management of the programme will shift to the Department of Conservation, reducing duplication and increasing efficiency, the minister says. Doole, who now runs her own research firm, Mātaki Environmental, says the head-whirling nature of the announcement reminded her of 2016. 'It'd just be nice if these things weren't just dropped out of thin air.' Confusingly, there's a charity called Predator Free New Zealand Trust, which supports communities, iwi, families and individuals with advice and encouragement. Trust chief executive Jessi Morgan – daughter of entrepreneur Gareth – says it works closely with the soon-to-be-closing company. 'They're almost like a sister organisation.' Morgan found out about the company's closure on Thursday afternoon, when the Budget announcements were made public. 'It was a bombshell for us and for the company itself, and we really feel for all the people that are involved and affected by it, because it's pretty brutal to lose a job like that.' The Government has reassured the trust it isn't stepping back from the mission. Potaka says all projects contracted to 'PF2050 Ltd' will continue. Morgan says: 'That gives us a bit of hope but losing the company itself is a bit gutting.' How has the news landed with conservation groups? It hasn't sparked an outcry. Perhaps the sector is getting used to bad news, given job cuts at DoC and savings demands on the department paired with public fundraising campaigns. (The Budget revealed the department is set to reap tens of millions of dollars because of an increase in the international visitor levy, but, despite that, it's closing the Nature Heritage Fund, saving $5.2m, and reducing policy work to save $1.8m. The budget for community conservation funds will drop from $21.5m to $11.6m.) Duncan Toogood, group manager of enabling services at Forest & Bird, accepts there's an argument of administrative duplication between the company and DoC, and it wants a smooth transition. WWF-New Zealand chief executive Kayla Kingdon-Bebb says of the company's closure: 'It's an acknowledgement that the model of delivery through a Crown-owned corporation was not fit for purpose.' Folding the work into DoC isn't necessarily a bad thing, but she wonders if there are deeper cuts on the way to the wider predator-free programme. 'That's not clear to me from the Budget papers.' 'It really has captured the hearts and minds of New Zealanders, perhaps more than any other conservation initiative' Kayla Kingdon-Bebb, WWF-NZ Gary Taylor, chair and chief executive of Environmental Defence Society, was sceptical of the programme being led by a company, rather than a charitable trust. But pest management is critical, he says. 'It's got to be done well, it's got to be done at scale – and preferably at an expanding scale. And whether this new configuration will enable that or not is very much an open question.' Doole, the independent researcher, believes Predator Free 2050 Ltd's closure will ripple through conservation, with potential unintended consequences. 'There's not really been any opportunity to talk about how it might roll out – it's come as a bit of a shock.' Managing large projects will, she suggests, require a lot of effort from DoC – an organisation that's already struggling to fulfill its broad mandate, with a huge backlog of maintenance and upgrades, and chronically overworked staff. It's questionable, Doole says, whether DoC can deliver the predator-free 2050 programme more efficiently than the company. 'It's a pretty messy scenario.' Possums, introduced from Australia in the 19th century, consume an estimated 21,000 tonnes of vegetation per night. Photo: Department of Conservation Sia Aston, the department's deputy director-general of public affairs, says about $70m a year is being spent on predator free, in total, but time-limited funding under Jobs for Nature ($76m) and the Provincial Growth Fund ($19.5m) has run out. DoC's funding for predator free was unchanged in the Budget, she says. The costs of managing Predator Free 2050 Ltd's projects and contracts will be absorbed into DoC's baseline. Once the company's wound up, $2.3m will be transferred to the department 'to avoid disruption to the valued work underway', Aston says. 'As the Government's lead agency for PF2050, the additional work of funding predator-free groups, providing technical support, collaborating, and investing in innovative technologies fits within DoC's role and skillset.' Has Predator Free 2050, the company, achieved what it was set up to do? Forlong, the chief executive, says it has supported and funded some very successful projects. 'These include landscape-scale, predator-elimination projects, the creation of new tools for predator removal, and scientific research.' A 2016 Cabinet paper, outlining the 2050 ambition, said the Government agreed to four interim goals to be achieved by this year. Progress, noted in brackets, comes from the company's 2024 annual report. The goals were to: increase by 1 million hectares the area of mainland New Zealand where predators are suppressed (84 percent achieved); demonstrate predator eradication can be achieved in mainland areas of at least 20,000ha, without using fences (more than tripled to 71,000ha); eradicate all mammalian predators from island nature reserves (progress not mentioned); develop break-through science solutions capable of eradicating at least one small mammal predator from the mainland (not mentioned, but 15 new tools are helping to rid farmland of pests). 'We have come a long way, in a relatively short time,' Forlong says. 'All up, landscape-scale predator-elimination projects supported by PF2050 Ltd cover just over 800,000 hectares,' Forlong says. By the end of March, the company had contributed $92m to its 18 major projects, while communities had contributed more than $167m – but not always in cash, that figure includes in-kind contributions and volunteer hours. It's backing 18 major projects, three of them iwi-led, with 130,000ha in the 'defence phase'. 'The defence phase is when the project considers it has removed all resident animals of the target species and is defending the area against re-invasion.' In all, Predator Free 2050 Ltd has funded and supported the development of 20 new and improved predator elimination tools. What's Forlong's message to the Government, about carrying on their work? 'We are pleased that the discussion document for the new PF2050 strategy includes a focus area of 'defending the gains'.' Kingdon-Bebb, of WWF, says there's been an explosion of community-based trapping groups and nature restoration initiatives since 2016, thanks to the 2050 goal. 'It really has captured the hearts and minds of New Zealanders, perhaps more than any other conservation initiative.' She picks out Capital Kiwi Project, and Predator Free Wellington's elimination of rats, stoats and weasels from Miramar Peninsula, as notable successes which have wildly expanded bird life. (Another major recipient was Pest Free Banks Peninsula, which has cleared possums from almost 10,000ha in and around Akaroa.) 'It would be really disappointing to see the National Party back away from this initiative, which they themselves launched, purely with a view to cost-cutting. Say what you will about the company, one way or the other, the movement itself is making ground.' Morgan, Predator Free New Zealand Trust's boss, says she's a fan of a laser-focused organisation focused on pest control. The risk of DoC absorbing the work is it won't get the attention required. 'I don't completely understand the logic behind [closing the company] but hopefully there was some.' Doole, the independent researcher, says Predator Free 2050 Ltd will close as biodiversity is in deep trouble. 'We've got so much that's on the brink, and what we really needed was a concerted and strategic effort to boost nature protection.'
RNZ News
24-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Budget 2025 decisions 'strange and unnecessary'
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has trashed the government's priorities in the Budget, and said his party will work toward restoring pay equity (file photo). Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Labour's leader has used his second speech in a series of regional conferences to attack the government's budget as a series of "strange and unnecessary decisions". Addressing party faithful in Wellington on Saturday afternoon, Chris Hipkins said some of those decisions included scrapping the Dawn Raids reconciliation programme and axing a key part of the pest eradication programme Predator Free 2050. As well as "spending $33 million on a boot camps policy that not only failed last time but is failing again right now, ending contracted emergency housing, and scrapping the Māori housing programme and stopping some families getting Best Start, which helps mums with new babies". Hipkins said the coalition government had also cut funding for RNZ, "while funding the local journalism it railed against at the last campaign". The changes to pay equity, signalled to save $12.8 billion over four years, were "a disgrace", he added, saying his party would not stop fighting until pay equity is restored. However he said it was too early to put a figure on how much it would cost to reverse that move, saying a lot could change in two years. On Friday Labour's finance spokesperson told RNZ the party would find the nearly $13 billion needed to reverse the law change, but Hipkins hedged more cautiously in his latest statements. "The government still haven't released the breakdown yet of how that $13b figure was even arrived at," he said, "so what we've said is that we'll reverse the changes, and we'll find the money to do that. But we're not in a position to write a budget that wouldn't take effect till two years from now, right today." Labour's plans included rolling out new policies in the second half of the year, Hipkins said, but he was staying tight-lipped on the details: "We'll be focused on jobs, health and homes, so there'll be more policies in those areas, and I've also said that we will be releasing our tax policy before the end of this year." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Perth Now
22-05-2025
- Business
- Perth Now
NZ posts $14 billion budget deficit, no path to surplus
In her second budget, Finance Minister Nicola Willis has posted a $14.7 billion deficit, even as she banks more than $5 billion in savings. There's no clear path back to surplus, with four future smaller deficits in the forward estimates. And there's no change to the government's debt trajectory, which is tipped to peak in 2027 at 46.5 per cent of GDP - just as it was forecast in 2024. The government has also badged this set of books as "the growth budget", but Treasury has downgraded growth forecasts. That's mainly due to lower-than-expected economic activity offshore - including the US-started trade war - which is critical to New Zealand's export-oriented economy. Unemployment, currently at five per cent, is expected to peak at 5.4 per cent in the next year, while there is relief in sight for homeowners after backsliding house prices, which Treasury sees jumping by an average six per cent a year in the forward estimates. MAJOR CHANGES Women-dominated workforces to miss out on $2.9b in foregone pay equity claims Investment Boost $1.7b tax break to instantly write off capital investments Employee and employer superannuation contributions to rise from three to four per cent - but government payments halved, saving $580m BUDGET TIDBITS Young people ineligible for unemployment benefits until age 20, saving $84m Funding to Reserve Bank cut by $36m Co-investment in natural gas fields worth $50m Radio NZ's budget to be cut by $4.6m - equivalent to seven per cent Tax evaders to be targeted by $35m worth of compliance chasers A major redevelopment of Nelson hospital, a new emergency department in Wellington Expansion of Christchurch Men's prison by 240 beds Emergency housing funding reduced by $200m Food banks get another year's support of $15m Year-long medicine prescriptions, costing $23m Predator Free 2050 initiative targeting pest mammals axed, saving $2.6m Climate finance to drop by $150m this year Smaller payments to new mothers of $50m (All figures in annual terms and in NZ dollars, $A1 = $NZ1.09)
