Freedom campers 'need to be educated'

Education is the key to stopping freedom campers with no toilets from polluting the environment, Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean says.

Local government, the Department of Conversation (DOC), the Motor Caravan Association and the Tourism Association needed to work together to find a solution because the situation was getting worse, she said.

"The solution has got many parts to it. What isn't working is that we are not getting the message through to freedom campers ... no amount of regulation is going to stop people because we don't have people monitoring ... we can't have people monitoring the wilderness.

"But what I think we really need to do is that we need to remind visitors to New Zealand ... that our environment is precious to us – don't foul it. I don't think that message is getting out strongly enough."

Mrs Dean said the message should have the same emphasis as biosecurity laws and should greet people as they entered the country.

"I think that has got to be our most powerful tool."

She said penalties on people who freedom camp without tank facilities or incentives for people to use dump stations and camping sites was still a reasonable idea.

"There's nothing to stop a rental company providing a discount to use a certain dump station."

However, she said it would be better to "encourage people to do the right thing, not penalise them".

Mackenzie District Council community facilities manager Garth Nixon said there was a bylaw restricting freedom camping near Lake Opuha and a ban on freedom camping near Lake Tekapo.

Last month, Twizel residents called for freedom camping to be banned near Lake Ruataniwha, but Mr Nixon said of the 18 submissions received on the proposal, the views were "really split. One thing that they were all sort of quite strong on was the need to control the unself-contained vehicles."

He said it "put people right off" when they came across waste and toilet paper.

Mr Nixon said the council had a warranted officers and a number of volunteers, but said there would always be "some [tourists who] play by the rules and some of them don't".

It was about educating tourists, he said.

In the meantime, if people felt comfortable doing so, they could tell freedom campers where to find the designated camping areas.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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