An abridged version of this letter was published in the Timaru Herald:
I write in response to Federated Farmers Vice-President Donald Aubrey's recent opinion piece (3 December). I feel that having attended the Mackenzie Country Symposium, I am in a far better position than Aubrey to comment on both the types of people who attended and the content that was covered.
Aubrey implied that the Symposium was about North Islanders coming down here to tell the locals how they should be running their lives. He pointed to Forest and Bird as being Wellington headquartered. In balance, I would have expected him to mention that Federated Farmers is also Wellington headquartered. Like Federated Farmers, Forest and Bird is made up of members from all over the country and the bulk of Forest and Bird members attending the Symposium were from regions surrounding the Mackenzie Country.
Contrary to Aubrey's implication, there was actually a strong turnout of locals at the Symposium. Among them were farmers, developers and members of the public who share a concern for the wellbeing and future of the Mackenzie Country. When the Minister for the Environment Nick Smith asked all locals in the audience to raise their hands, he reported that about half of those present had done so.
The day prior to the Symposium, field trips were run where local developers and farmers along with Meridian and DOC had a chance to demonstrate how the land was currently being used and to talk about both the history and future plans for the area. On the day of the Symposium we heard from Scientists, Ecologists, the Tourism Industry, MAF, both the Mackenzie and Waitaki District Councils, ECan, Meridian as well as EDS and Forest and Bird. All these parties have an interest in the future of the Mackenzie Country. The highlights for me however, were Nick Smith's well balanced and timely address along with the response from the locals when the floor was opened up to them.
I found the event to be akin to Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. For Aubrey to label such a fantastic initial dialogue as an "imposium" is both ignorant and disrespectful. As Aubrey demonstrates in his opinion piece, Federated Farmers could have added further valuable insight at the Symposium. I would hope that next time they take up the opportunity to engage with the "aliens", regardless of how unfair the terms of the engagement may be.