Video episode available on my Substack.

Former Green MP and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage joins Melanie for a deep dive into the Government’s sweeping proposals to “modernise conservation land management" — reforms she believes will dismantle decades of hard-won protections for our public estate.

Framed as streamlining, efficiency, and “unlocking” economic opportunities, the changes would shift DOC’s focus from preservation to enabling economic activity, making it far easier for businesses, infrastructure projects, and tourism ventures to gain access to public conservation land. Decision-making powers currently held by the New Zealand Conservation Authority and conservation boards would be stripped away and centralised with the Minister. The robust statutory safeguards of the General Policy for National Parks and the General Policy for Conservation would be replaced by a single, more generic National Conservation Policy Statement.

Eugenie warns that the proposals go well beyond efficiency tweaks. They open the door to large-scale disposal or exchange of land — including areas deemed “surplus to conservation requirements” or reallocated “to support other government priorities” — potentially covering around 5 million hectares of the estate. Amenity areas could be expanded into development nodes. Concessions could be pre-approved by class, bypassing case-by-case scrutiny and ignoring cumulative impacts. Public participation processes would be curtailed, weakening community voices.

In this conversation, we unpack what these reforms mean for biodiversity, Treaty obligations, climate resilience, DOC’s culture and resourcing, and New Zealand’s international reputation. We explore how these changes intersect with the Government’s fast-track approvals regime and wider deregulatory agenda — and why Eugenie sees them as the most serious weakening of conservation law in decades.

Resources

DOC’s news release on Unleashing growth on conservation land

Factsheet on Modernising Conservation Land Management

Cabinet paper on Modernising Conservation Land Management

Subscribe for more
If you value independent political analysis, subscribe to my Substack for more interviews, writing, and updates. Free subscribers get regular content. Paid subscriptions really help keep this work going.

You can also buy me a coffee!

Why the Regulatory Standards Bill would paralyse Parliament, empower unelected overseers, and unravel democratic lawmaking in New Zealand

In this episode of Coherent, Melanie Nelson speaks with former Prime Minister and constitutional law expert Sir Geoffrey Palmer about the Regulatory Standards Bill — which he describes as one of the most dangerous and constitutionally incoherent pieces of legislation he’s encountered in his long career.

Sir Geoffrey warns that the Bill would install an unelected oversight board with sweeping powers, reduce ministers to bystanders in their own portfolios, and introduce regulatory principles that are legally unenforceable but politically weaponised. He argues the Bill would produce “regulatory chaos,” subvert ministerial responsibility, and undermine the principle that elected representatives — not economists — are responsible for making law.

We cover:

• Why Clause 24 creates a legal fiction that bypasses the courts
• How the Bill concentrates power in a “super-minister” while silencing other ministers
• The risks to public safety and the environment from an ideologically tilted “property rights” regime
• What’s missing from the Bill’s design — including any reference to the Regulations Review Committee
• How the Bill reflects a global trend toward authoritarian capitalism — and why it must be stopped

Palmer makes the case that the RSB is not just a policy error, but a democratic and constitutional crisis in the making. His call is clear: submit, speak up, and stop this Bill while we still can.

Resources:

Sector Specific RSB Tool: https://tinyurl.com/RSBTool

Linktree with a wide range of historic and contemporary information on the RSB, including submission guides and builders.

Subscribe for more
This is part of a series of in-depth conversations with experts across sectors on the real-world impacts of the Regulatory Standards Bill. If you value independent political analysis, subscribe to my Substack for more interviews, writing, and updates. Free subscribers get regular content. Paid subscriptions really help keep this work going.

Video episode available on my Substack.

In this powerful and far-reaching conversation, Dame Anne Salmond joins Melanie to confront the deeper ideological project behind the Regulatory Standards Bill. With clarity, compassion and a lifetime of scholarly insight, Anne warns that the Bill isn’t just about regulation — it’s a blueprint for hollowing out democracy, elevating corporate interests, and tying government into a narrow ideological approach.

Together, they explore:

• How the RSB advances a global libertarian agenda hostile to public good
• The Bill’s undermining of collective rights, te Tiriti, and environmental protections
• The risks of concentrating oversight power in a single Minister’s hands
• Why the ‘double speak’ of “freedom and democracy” masks a corporate agenda
• The erosion of due process, evidence-based policymaking, and civil political discourse

Anne also issues a clear warning about the danger of small parties imposing fringe philosophies through opaque coalition deals. And she closes with a hopeful call to return to our shared values — grounded in whakapapa, manaakitanga, community, and a fair go — to imagine a democracy worth defending.

Resources:

Sector Specific RSB Tool: https://tinyurl.com/RSBTool

Linktree with a wide range of historic and contemporary information on the RSB, including submission guides and builders.

Subscribe for more
This is part of a series of in-depth conversations with experts across sectors on the real-world impacts of the Regulatory Standards Bill. If you value independent political analysis, subscribe to my Substack for more interviews, writing, and updates. Free subscribers get regular content. Paid subscriptions really help keep this work going.