OPINION: Your old mate notes that Conservation Minister and Green MP Eugene Sage was waxing lyrically about the recent legal protection of 11,800 hectares of new conservation land in the Mackenzie Basin.
Sage dubbed it a collaborative initiative between the Crown, iwi and landholders.
However, your canine crusader notes that one of the two landowners who agreed to transfer around 5000 ha of his land to the public conservation estate is Simon’s Pass Station owner Murray Valentine.
This is the same Murray Valentine who the Greens – and other environmental fundamentalists – have lambasted, castigated and abused for converting some of his land to a dairy farm.
One wonders if Valentine did not now have his successful dairy operation, would he have been able to afford to make such a generous contribution to the national conservation estate?