Practical Access to Public Land

UnitedFuture believes that all New Zealanders have a birthright to enjoy our unique, diverse landscape. Our strong outdoor heritage is central to what it means to be a Kiwi.

Over successive governments we have advocated strongly for an Access policy that protects and enhances access to public land without impinging on the property rights of landowners. UnitedFuture, while welcoming the establishment of the Walking Access Commission, does not consider the Commission has sufficient legislative authority to protect the right of access to public land.

 Our interest lies in maintaining and, where possible, enhancing public access to public land.

 It is UnitedFuture policy to:

• Close the loopholes within our public access law that allow situations of ‘exclusive capture’ to arise and actively go after landowners who continue to sell exclusive access rights to our public resources.
• Strengthen the mandate of the Walking Access Commission and ensure that the Queen’s Chain is formally enshrined in statute;
• Ensure that New Zealanders have clearly defined legal rights of access to public land (including the Queen’s Chain);
• Strengthen the Walking Access Commission so that it is an advocate for public access rather than purely a mediator in relation to access negotiations; and ensure that it has sufficient power to negotiate specific access corridors across private land with landowners on a case-by-case basis (these corridors could in many instances be based on the ‘paper roads’ and easements that already exist on many legal property titles but are not always acknowledged by landowners);   
• Ensure the access regime applies to all private land (including Maori land) for the purposes of ensuring access to public land for all legal pursuits;
• Replace the existing and arbitrary four-hectare rule in relation to subdivision-derived esplanade reserves with a less arbitrary trigger for creating new access.
• Maintain and strengthen a Code of Conduct (via the Walking Access Commission) that protects property rights and the rights of landowners from people trespassing beyond a legally established corridor, littering, leaving gates open or other nuisances;
• Require recreational clubs to adopt the Code of Conduct and deal with any complaints directed at their members;
• Establish a clear set of guidelines for applying to set up new access corridors;
• Require and resource the Walking Access Commission to enforce the terms of access corridors on landowners once they have been established;
• Ensure adequate funding is available to cover any costs (such as track maintenance) that the establishment or maintenance of an access corridor may entail – under no circumstances should the landowner incur any costs associated with public access corridors on their land;
• Establish a fund to compensate landowners up front for any damage that members of the public cause to their property (the land access agency can pursue offenders to recover the cost of fund payouts separately);