James Imlach: NZ Motor Caravan Association Property and Policy National Manager on the proposed freedom camping bylaw in the Queenstown Lakes District

Fears a proposed bylaw to combat freedom camping in the Queenstown Lakes District could be a headache for Kiwis. 

The new bylaw goes before councillors this week and proposes 15 designated freedom camping sites for the district following a surge in freedom campers. 

People freedom camping in other areas could face fines of at least $400.  

New Zealand Motor Caravan Association's James Imlach says there was consultation from the council, but it wasn’t done well enough to get a plan that both protects the community and allows law-abiding people to camp in the district without causing harm. 

He told Mike Hosking it seems to have been a bit of a token gesture, as the proposed bylaw is very similar to what they’ve been trying to push for a number of years, and it seems like the council’s just trying to find a new way to get the same outcome. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Freedom camping back in the news. Queenstown Lakes District. They've
been there before. They got the harsh number of road
campers in the country. Of course, twenty twenty one day
to Buy law tossed out for being too restrictive. That
left the district without one since last year. Basically, so
there's a new plan proposes fifteen designated spots up from
just one. James Imlake is the Motor Caravan Association boss
and he's with us morning, good morning, night. Are these
particular rules and ideas? Is this argument unique to Queenstown

(00:23):
or is the whole country in some way, shape or
form affected by this.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
It's more particularly in Queenstown, Mike. This council has a
history of making unlawful decisions and this is just the
tip of the iceberg. We've been battling them for a
number of years and gone to court twice and come
out successful twice, and we're concerned that they're going to
make the same mistakes again with this new by law.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Had they consulted well or not.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
They had consulted the public, but I don't think they've
done a well enough job where they could have arrived
in an outcome that would protect the community but still
allow law abiding New Zealanders to freedom camp in the
district without causing harm.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Said that, have they consulted You say, yes, But what's
happened clearly is they've consulted that you just don't like
what they've done, and they're allowed to do what they
do generally, aren't they.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Well, I think the consultation has been a bit of
a token gesture, okay, because the outcome that we see
here is very similar to what they've been trying to
push for a number of years. The kay Court told
them two years ago that what they could do wasn't lawful,
so they're just trying to find another way to get
the same outcome.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
See, is the problem the internationals or is it you
retired couple of your locals who just want to do
a bit of freedom camping and the international spoil it
for everybody? Or is it more complex than that.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, it is a bit complex, but at a high level,
I think the counts are saying that it's these international
travelers and these budget vehicles that are causing a problem.
But the by law doesn't need to stop everybody from
being able to camp. The vast majority of people who
are Keyweeks of Freedom camp are responsible. They've had a

(01:56):
lot of money to do this, their rate payers and taxpayers,
but they've been completely shut up because the council doesn't
want to even look at other options to enable them
to continue campaign.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Do you think they're just ideologically opposed to the idea
and they don't want to give you a free run.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Absolutely, They've made it very clear to us over the
last decade they just do not want New Zealanders camping
in their own backyard.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Is it worth the fight? I mean, you can go
out of the places. New Zealand's beautiful place and there's
a lot of places to park. Do you really need
to be in central a tiger they're going to be
pricks about them.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Well, yeah, Queenstown is a tourism meta of New Zealand
and a lot of Keywis want to go down there
and enjoy a holiday down and spend money in their
local communities. But also queens Town has made it very
clear that they want this to set a precedent. They
want other councils to follow their regime and their lobbying
government quite hard to make substantial changes to legislation so

(02:47):
that Keywis can't go camping around most of the country
and less councils say they can, and we just think
that's fundamentally wrong.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
All right, James, appreciate it, James and Black who's with
the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association. For more The Mic
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