From Hansard 9 September 2009
From page 6170
“There are powers that I have as Minister for the Environment around the issuing of directions to councils. I am reluctant to use them, unless councils will not do what I think is sensible and what this Parliament would expect.  My intention would be to write to each Auckland council and ask them to set out their programme of work for identifying the trees of significance and that should be specifically, by group or individually, listed in their district plans, and to require those councils every 6 months to report to me on the progress they make.”

“The message I have for Auckland councils in response to the concerns that have been raised by Nikki Kaye is that the resource processing all those tree-trimming consents should be redirected, so representatives of the councils can get out and talk with people in the neighbourhoods and communities about what sorts of trees should be protected.”

From page 6200
“I simply ask that rather than those council staff members doing that meaningless task they do a worthwhile job—that is, get round their suburbs, their beautiful areas of Auckland, and whip around with a very simple device, a locator, and find out from the council plans where those significant trees are that we really should be protecting.  I have confidence that they will get on and do that.”

From page 6217
“The second thing is that over the next 2 and a bit years, the council will be able to put the bureaucratic effort that is going into processing a whole lot of resource consents for tree trimming into identifying the really significant trees in Auckland that deserve protection.”

From page 6234
“The process for councils to list specific trees for protection, over the next 2 years, is not onerous and will require a fraction of the bureaucracy needed to process all those tree-trimming consents.  I will be monitoring, though, the performance of councils as they go about the exercise of identifying those trees and if councils fail to progress this work, I will use my powers under the Resource Management Act to ensure that it will be done.”

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