The great Kiwi road trip could be at risk. A bunch of friends hit the road Friday night for a weekend of surfing. In the early hours they reach the beach and sleep in the van so they can get a few hours sleep before hitting the water at sunrise. Under the Government’s anti-Freedom Camping Bill they could be up for an instant $150. (For surfing you can also read fishing, tramping, hunting…)
The Bill is an attempt to deal with the problem of littering and human waste left by the large number of campervans in some of the country’s most scenic spots. It makes it easier for Councils to declare areas off-limits to freedom camping, and gives them an enforcement regime that includes instant fines for both littering, and camping in the wrong areas.
Let’s be clear: there is a problem here. Noone likes to see toilet waste on the roadside in our scenic spots. But according to submitters it is mostly caused by international visitors travelling in campervans without self-contained toilet facilities.
Our objection is that the Bill is a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. It gives DoC and Councils the tools to effectively outlaw freedom camping by declaring large areas out of bounds for freedom campers. Both DoC and Councils can levy instant fines on offenders. Now DoC doesn’t have a record of predatory enforcement regimes for the purposes of income generation, but you can’t say the same thing about some Councils.
It amazes me that other more targeted approaches haven’t been tried first. Why not bring in instant fines for littering and waste dumping (and not freedom camping), have the option of levying those fines on vehicles (as is done with traffic fines) and then make it mandatory for rental companies to recover the fine from the client’s credit card.
Why not phase out campervans that don’t have self-contained toilet facilities? Maybe as a country that encourages higher and higher numbers of tourists we should invest a bit more in visitor infrastructure like toilets, rubbish bins, and waste disposal facilities for campervans?
From an email just in:
Thanks for your common sense stand on freedom camping, I’m a kiwi – currently overseas.As a surfer being able to enjoy New Zealand, crashing where there are waves is worth more to me than any sum of money.This… bill represents a destruction of what I value most about New Zealand, and NZder’s tradition of camping next to lakes, the sea, enjoying what we ALL have as kiwis.
P.S. I should add that we voted for the Bill at first reading, recognising there is a problem and we thought the Bill deserved some select committee scrutiny. Having read and heard the submissions, we now think it is a dog.
Pretty sure the instant fines for littering already exist. The problem is that it’s nearly impossible to police as you’d need to have someone there watching all the time. Same would be for waste dumping. As this is the case the activity that produces that waste is fined instead as it’s a lot easier and cheaper to catch.
If you want to do it the way you suggest then you’ll have to look to other ways of catching people which would most likely be video surveillance and that would open up a lot of other issues such as invasion of privacy.
Camper vans should already be required to have self-contained toilet facilities. Not all people going freedom camping hire camper vans.
Thank you Phil. About time someone took this seriously, and its about time councils (government) recognized that they don’t own the land, but manage it on behalf of all the people.
In the name of making it easier for councils to enforce, they will knowingly punish those innocent of the behavior they wish to prohibit.
I believe lawyers have a term for this meaning “exceptional crime” such as Guantanamo bay where rules of law no longer apply. The rest of us call refer to it as a witch hunt or kangaroo court.
while watching this debate in the media, it seemed a little strange that everyone pro the bill (anti free-camping) seemed to either own a motor camp or be attached to a council somehow.Pretty obvious conflict of interest I would have thought?This is stupid legislation and it won’t work ” Officer I was too tired to drive any further, so I pulled over for a sleep…..”.Given the “fatigue the silent killer” campaign the police run, you could mount a pretty strong defense ?
AS is the normal practise in our country, penalise everybody for the wrongdoing of a few. That way you will catch the ones you really want. Rules and bylaws are already in place to deal with the issues targeted in the proposed legislation. Predatory enforcement, you betcha. With a bit of luck, both local and international tourists will stop traveling and spending money here and the problem will go away.
Phil, I like the infrastructure and credit card ideas
I don’t think phase out campervans without toilet facilities, I think ban them out right! Some of those tourists are disgusting!
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I live in Wanaka and the problem is that some people are simply foul ignorant animals. They shit wherever they please, and because it doesn’t rain much here it can stick around for months.
I’m not sure the problem is campervans. People visit here in all kinds of vehicles – the people who freedom camp aren’t always the people who can afford campervans, often it’s stationwagons and vans that people camp in, or in our case a VW beetle.
Setting up more toilet facilities isn’t feasible. It’s simply too expensive to place a toilet in every remote pristine spot that someone might want to freedom camp.
I like that NZ is a place where you can stay wherever you like, but the status quo is pretty gross for the people who have to walk past human turds on our morning walks. Personally I wouldn’t have a problem with making it mandatory for all freedom campers to carry a bucket + plastic bag + roll of TP with them so they at least have the option of doing the right thing.
Speaking of litter and waste, paris is pretty dirty. A contradiction when you consider the Parisiens fancy themselves as upholders of all that is elegant… while they litter and the streets smell of urine. It doesnt take much imagination to hard back to the middle ages.
Are there going to be poo-inspectors patrolling the countryside of NZ?
For those who think that corporate ownership of media has no impact on the media produced pay special heed tot he hacking debate raging int he UK this week. In particular the alleged dishonesty of News International when last challenged on this and the impact ot could have oin its attempt to take over BskyB.
I agree Paris is pretty foul, as is Berlin and Dublin and probably a lot of other large cities. Although to be fair, the council cleans the pavements every morning with a big floor-cleaning machine so they are making some effort at least.
But comparing large cities to remote scenic spots isn’t all that relevant. I wasn’t aware we had a freedom camping problem in Central Auckland.
With Doc being in many of these pristine areas, I’d suggest they do what they have done in the far north at the sand dunes. Composting long drops which dont smell or hinder the views.Simple,effective, cheap solution that work! Oh and a rubbish bin outside toilet door.