and opposition parties<\/a> said he was missing the point, because the bill creates a legal framework that could allow big chunks to be sold.<\/p>\nPotaka said the disposal and exchange provisions in the bill had generated a lot of interest.<\/p>\n
“We’ve had no intention to sell off large parcels of land, but it seems that the words don’t necessarily match our intentions,” Potaka said.<\/p>\n
He said maps circulated by Forest and Bird that illustrated the amount of land it believed would be opened up for sale and economic development, did not represent the government’s intentions.<\/p>\n
“That’s caused a bit of uncertainty, that’s caused concern, and to be fair, a lot of ambiguity. So we’ve heard New Zealanders, we’ve listened to New Zealanders, and as a result, we’re taking action.”<\/p>\n
Potaka said he would bring suggested changes to Cabinet which made improvements to the status quo, including better safeguards around the sale of land.<\/p>\n
“We’re going to approve the current process in the Conservation Act.”<\/p>\n
He said it was too soon to comment on what the bar would be for selling off conservation land.<\/p>\n
![\"Caucus](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4JPGNWY_Shane_Jones_1_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones.<\/p>\n
RNZ \/ Mark Papalii<\/p>\n
New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones was at the conference alongside Potaka, and said his party supported Potaka’s move.<\/p>\n
“The reality is the scope was far too much for key members in the environmental community, and the broader community, to swallow,” he said.<\/p>\n
Jones said people accepted a desire for the conservation department to be more efficient, and for redundant pieces of land to be disposed of.<\/p>\n
“But we don’t want to open up some gaping wound that causes people to feel that there’s a mass privatisation exercise about to be embarked upon.”<\/p>\n
He said Potaka would be suggesting improvements to the bill to allay public fears and allow DOC to be more efficient.<\/p>\n
Potaka promised to work with others on other provisions in the bill, including those about economic development.<\/p>\n
The proposed law would require the Department of Conservation to put economic opportunities front and centre when it made decisions about its land.<\/p>\n
Potaka had previously described the bill as the biggest change to conservation management in decades, saying it removed red tape and modernised how public conservation was managed.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, he accused Forest and Bird of frightening people by spreading “deceitful” messages.<\/p>\n
But Potaka also told reporters he was prepared to make changes to the bill having listening “very carefully and cautiously” to the community reaction.<\/p>\n
“Absolutely, that’s what democracy is all about,” he said.<\/p>\n
“If you think Tama’s omniscient and omnipotent, you’re probably not on the right planet. You’re probably on Planet Tama.”<\/p>\n
The minister also told the EDS conference there was more work to be done on elements in the bill relating to an emphasis on economic development.<\/p>\n
Environmentalists want entire bill binned<\/p>\n
Greenpeace Aotearoa campaigner Gen Toop said Potaka’s announcement did not go far enough, and called for the bill to be scrapped entirely.<\/p>\n
“From start to finish this bill is rotten to its core. It must be thrown out immediately,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Even if National manages to convince its coalition partners to pull the land sales parts out – this bill would still make it easier for open cast mines, private resorts, gondolas, and shopping malls to degrade the wild places we all treasure.”<\/p>\n
That was as bad as selling the land, Toop said.<\/p>\n
Nearly 50,000 had signed a Greenpeace petition calling for the bill to be abandoned, she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Caucus](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4JPGNV1_Marama_Davidson_1_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson.<\/p>\n
RNZ \/ Mark Papalii<\/p>\n
The Green Party said Potaka’s announcement showed public pressure was working.<\/p>\n
“This is a backdown forced by tens of thousands of New Zealanders who refused to let their wild places be put on the market,” said co-leader Marama Davidson.<\/p>\n
“The minister has finally heard them, but removing these clauses does not fix a bill that was built to serve developers instead of nature.”<\/p>\n
Davidson also had concerns about the provisions for economic development on the land, and said Potaka should scrap the bill and start again.<\/p>\n
Forest & Bird’s acting chief executive Erika Toleman said the backdown was an incredible win for the people of Aotearoa.<\/p>\n
She warned even with the sales proposal gone, there was still a risk land could be sold due to an economic clause in the bill.<\/p>\n
The clause proposes adding a new core purpose for the Department of Conservation (DOC) to put economic opportunities front and centre when making decisions to the “greatest extent practicable”.<\/p>\n
“It enables the change of land status of various types of conservation land, which means they can be revoked, or passed out of the conservation estate,” Toleman said.<\/p>\n
Potaka said the wording of this clause would be considered, but that economic development would still be included somehow.<\/p>\n
Toleman was hopeful Forest & Bird would be involved in discussions about this before the bill reaches select committee.<\/p>\n
“If economic development is going to be recognised in the purpose of DOC, it needs to be in a hierarchy where protection of conservation values sits right at the top.”<\/p>\n
Submissions on the bill close on 2 July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Potaka ditches controversial clause in Conservation Amendment bill Checkpoint *This story has been updated to clarify what the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-494464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}