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Time Magazine said last June "the Kiwi is becoming the canary in the coal mine of the new global economic order."
Quoted from appended article from today's New Zealand press:
[In New Zealand there was "an ingrained social expectation that access to the public conservation land will be provided free of charge", and that was backed by legislation banning park-access fees.]
 In the following article, the government rhetoric and/or lies will seem very familiar to those who've been following the user-fees issue in this country.
Following the article, it a stark assessment of how the New Zealand canary (aka, the Kiwi) has been fairing.
Simply stated, the creation of a free-market based "ownership society" dictates that every good, every service and every thing (tangible or intangible) which can possibly be valued in monetary terms must be valued in those terms. Long ingrained social expectations and the rights of citizenship are, unfortunately, have no value in the marketplace and therefore are given no place in the new global economic order.
Scott
--- begin quoted ---
March 14, 2007
Trampers slam bid for fees
By JOHN HENZELL - The Press
Substantial fee increases proposed for the Department of Conservation
(DOC) are being slated as a back-door attempt to introduce park-access
fees.
A Treasury report for DOC said it was unfair for the 96 per cent of
Kiwis who do not regularly go into the hills to subsidise the generally
well-off other 4 per cent, who would not be put off by shouldering far
more of the cost.
Treasury analyst Tobias Haque said DOC was forbidden by law from
copying Australia, the United States, Canada and South Africa by
charging for access to the 30 per cent of New Zealand under its
management.
He said it would "need to devise means of enforcing payment from those
who use facilities and services provided within parks without charging
for access to the park or being perceived to do so".
The Treasury report has been criticised as incomplete, contradictory
and questionable by Federated Mountain Clubs (FMC), which represents
over 100 tramping and climbing clubs.
FMC spokesman Robin McNeill said the Treasury may be trying to find a
back-door way of imposing a fee to access conservation land.
"They sort of hint at park-access fees," he said.
"It's written in such a way that some of the logic didn't quite follow.
They said they weren't (suggesting access fees), then they talked about
ways they could, and it seemed to me they were hinting it at it.
"There's a de facto charge right now. Any commercial operation - such
as a mountain guide, water taxi or helicopter - pays a concession to
DOC and you can be sure the operators don't absorb that cost. They pass
it on to the user."
McNeill said the report lacked robustness and made no distinction
between tourism and recreation, and also failed to take into account
the benefits conservation land brought to communities.
DOC's analysis showed substantial returns on government spending, such
as Fiordland, where the department spends $8.8 million a year but the
conservation estate generates an estimated $196m, he added.
DOC did not return calls from The Press yesterday.
FMC president Brian Stephenson said the Treasury report "mentions but
excludes from consideration" the implications for public health if it
cost more to get into the hills.
"This is an important topic to leave out, given the Government's
concern about the impacts of under-exercise and obesity on the health
budget," he said.
Many DOC facilities are subsidised, including the huts on walks such as
the Routeburn and Milford and in the high alpine areas of the Southern
Alps.
Plateau Hut, used to access the most popular route up Mount Cook, costs
$35 a night in summer, but that was about one-third of the true cost of
running it. The 33-bed structure cost $800,000 to build two years ago
and is designed to survive winds of up to 250kmh.
The Treasury report said such huts were examples of DOC assets the New Zealand taxpayer was paying for but few were using.
DOC pays 93 per cent of the $115m annual cost of providing recreational
opportunities in the conservation estate, far more than similar
countries. In parts of the US, 100 per cent of the costs are recovered
by user fees.
"In fact, in Australia, the United States, Canada and other developed
and developing countries, increased user charges have allowed park
administering authorities to improve service provision and the range of
opportunities provided," the report says.
It said user charges were "often viewed favourably by park agencies, park visitors and the general public".
However, in New Zealand there was "an ingrained social expectation that
access to the public conservation land will be provided free of
charge", and that was backed by legislation banning park-access fees.
DOC research showed park users were likely to be "non-minority" men
from managerial or white-collar professions. Those involved in active
pursuits tended to be young, single, well-educated and with
above-average incomes.
And here's some added background:
[Published on Tuesday, August 15, 2000 in The National Post (Canada)]
It has been so long since anyone in the business press has praised the
New Zealand "miracle," it's almost as if we imagined the whole thing.
But, of course, the current silence is really no mystery. The 15-year
free market experiment has been an unmitigated disaster. The suffering
caused among ordinary New Zealanders is well known: the highest youth
suicide rate in the developed world; the proliferation of food banks;
huge increases in violent and other crime; the bankruptcy of half the
farms in the country; the economic disruption of hundreds of thousands
of lives; health care, education and other social services devastated
by the mad marketplace scientists.
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- Privatization 
