While the Ministry for Primary Industries says the group’s concerns around funding cuts to wallaby control are unfounded, the four councils have signalled they will work together on issues in the "Ngāi Tahu takiwā (region)".
The four chairs of the Otago Regional Council, Environment Canterbury, Environment Southland and the West Coast Regional Council wrote to Local Government New Zealand’s regional sector group and Bay of Plenty Regional Council chairman Doug Leeder at the end of last year to indicate the desire to provide a strong voice from the region to central government.
Environment Canterbury chairman Peter Scott, who authored the letter, said the leaders of the four councils had been meeting regularly for the past couple of years.
Yet, the joint letter and the relationship "becoming possibly more formalised" marked a first for the councils, Cr Scott said.
He said the four regional councils met recently to discuss areas where the councils aligned "and to reinforce our commitment to advocating for our regions’ specific emerging and current issues".
"We are planning to work together on areas of common interest; climate resilience, the impact on employment of the ending of Jobs for Nature, and roading quality and the impacts of proposed reduction in speed limits," the letter said.
"Specifically, we discussed biodiversity and biosecurity issues, and our current concerns regarding the future of wallaby and wilding conifer eradication.
"Indications are that funding for both of these programmes will be severely cut in the near future, jeopardising the work that has been undertaken to date."
A spokeswoman for the Ministry for Primary Industries said yesterday there were no impending cuts to wallaby control funding.
The Tipu Mātoro National Wallaby Eradication Programme was funded through Jobs for Nature, but unlike most Jobs for Nature programmes, its funding did not end in 2024.
The programme had ongoing funding of $6.9 million from the 2023-24 financial year onwards, she said.
"The Tipu Mātoro National Wallaby Eradication Programme was not aware of the programme funding-related concerns set out in the letter from regional council chairs. However, the programme will contact the councils to confirm the funding situation and allay any concerns they may have," she said.
Nevertheless, Cr Scott said the councils were concerned central government funding used to build up a workforce, as was the case with wilding pines, could then be removed, creating greater long-term costs.
In the case of wilding pines, "the capacity to get the work done is there at the moment".
"When you take the funding away, that capacity goes.
"We know from all our experience on all those things that if you spend a dollar now to get it done it saves you having to spend $30, $40, $50 to do the equivalent thing in five years’ time."
Facing a nearly $1 million shortfall for Otago’s wilding pine control this year, the Otago Regional Council voted unanimously this month to lobby the Government to reconsider the timing of the cuts.
Yesterday, chairwoman Gretchen Robertson said it was common sense for the councils to work together on topics of shared interest.
"Regional boundaries are superficial in many senses, especially when we need each other."
