This Government has taken an axe to so many things…metaphorically speaking: Kiwisaver, night classes, the R & D tax credit. Ahh, the list goes on.

But it is now taking an axe – more literally – to our urban forest with the banning of tree protection rules. The ban is found in cl 52 of the Resource Management Amendment Bill due for its second reading this week, and well covered on the front page of this morning’s Herald.

By prohibiting tree protection rules that say you cannot cut down any tree over a certain size without getting a consent, the only option will be for Councils to list individual trees they want to protect. As many submitters to the select committee pointed out, this would be so expensive as to be impractical. It’s not going to happen.  Auckland’s leafy burbs will have more chainsaw noise than a Mooloo game. See David Shearer’s post for more on this.

For National this is a trophy in their crusade against red tape. But it is pure ideology. Environment Minister Nick Smith rejected Jeanette Fitzsimons’ compromise solution that would have made tree protection rules less onerous by allowing pruning without a consent and making consents easier and quicker to obtain.

Meanwhile the Lorax is stirring. Emails demanding cl 52 be dropped have been flooding the in-boxes of Auckland MPs. Conservation groups have mobilised. Two hundred people attended an angry public meeting in Grey Lynn last week and another one is planned out west.

Where are National’s Auckland MPs on this? Labour and Green MPs fronted the Grey Lynn meeting but no sign of Nikki Kaye or any other National MP.

While she wasn’t at the public meeting, Nikki Kaye has projected a lot of empathy on this issue over recent months around central Auckland where there is intense concern over the fate of our urban coastal forest. But on this issue, as with the cuts to night classes and the Government’s unpopular super city, Ms Kaye talks a good line in empathy and concern in the electorate but votes the other way in Wellington.

In the local Ponsonby News Ms Kaye had this to say:

I understand the value of trees in an urban environment. Unfortunately, like John Elliott I have some concerns about the potential impact of the tree provisions within the RMA. Over the next few weeks I will be working with the Party and people like John Elliott to see what I can do to allay those concerns either through legislation or policy.

I challenge Nikki Kaye to oppose cl 52 in the House this week. Most of her Auckland Central constituents don’t want our trees to be put at risk. Empathy is a fine thing but it is how you vote in the House that really counts. She should support the amendment Labour and the Greens will be putting up to delete cl 52, or explain to her constituents why she is not supporting it.