National leader Christopher Luxon promises major boost for QEII Trust conservation fund

National is promising to double funding for the Queen Elizabeth (QEII) Trust if elected.

It comes as MPs will join many from New Zealand’s rural sector at Fieldays in Mystery Creek, Hamilton later this week.

National Party leader Christopher Luxon, speaking alongside the party’s conservation and agriculture spokesmen Tama Potaka and Todd McClay, made the commitment while at a farm in Mangatāwhiri.

If National was re-elected, it would mean funding for the trust, which formed partnerships with landowners to create protected pockets of land under covenants, would increase from about $4.2m to about $8.5m per year.

The trust did get a temporary funding uplift to $5.8m this year but National’s policy would increase funding from its previous level.

The funding increase would be confirmed in next year’s Budget and would not be time-limited, meaning it would be funded through the four-year forecast period.

Luxon said the funding would assist the trust in offering what he described as the “best-value conservation in the country“.

“Every dollar the government puts in, farmers match many times over. It’s great bang for buck for both the taxpayer and nature.

“More funding will support landowners with upfront costs like fencing, surveying and legal work – costs that can often stop good projects from going ahead."

The announcement will likely feature in National’s pitch at Fieldays later this week, which Luxon will be attending.

Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland