Conservation tends to suffer under National governments, and this year's budget was true to form. Meanwhile, some private schools may be saved from extinction

You got to wonder what the Department of Conservation did to the National Party in a prior life. By the law of karma, it must have been a rather unpleasant act.

That seems the only explanation for DoC forever being National’s punching bag. When you need to swipe a few million from somewhere – maybe for a really good cause like a new polo field at Christ’s College – National realises those pesky tree-huggers know how to get by on a bag of nails and not much else.

Not that you’d know that DoC lost a few million from the government’s budget day propaganda. Conservation Minister Tim Groser somehow forgot to issue a budget day statement. While the word ‘infrastructure’ was mentioned 11 times in Bill English’s budget speech, conservation was not mentioned once. (And the only mention of ‘environment’ was in association with the word ‘business’.)

What Groser and English did not want to tell the public was that $4 million was swiped from Conservation this year, and another $39 million is forecast for cutting next year. If the latter eventuates, it amounts to around 10 percent of the department’s total vote.

One area being cut is the Community Conservation Fund, which gives money to community groups to restore public spaces. The truly weird thing about that is that the first paragraph in National’s 2008 conservation policy reads: ‘National believes the next step forward for conserving our unique flora and fauna is to encourage the initiatives of thousands of volunteers and dozens of organisations in community conservation projects.’

That policy’s first ‘principle’ was to ‘reduce barriers to the participation of community organisations in species recovery programmes and make funding of community eco-restoration projects a priority.’ As Borat might say, not.

The tragedy about cutting DoC’s funding is that, as anyone who knows DoC and observes them in action will be aware, few government agencies share its penurious approach. While other agencies throw Koru membership around fairly liberally, organise retreats in swanky-ish locations, and view the public purse with a sense of, well, entitlement, DoC is the opposite. Retreats, when held, are in spartan locations in which hair-shirts would be de rigeur if the budget extended that far. Visit the DoC head office in places like Taupo and Rotorua and you get a sense of the frugality which permeates the organisation. (There is some irony that another exemplar of public sector frugality – Christine Rankin – returns to public office just when DoC finds its budget pared back.)

What the funding cuts will mean is that tracks will not be built or fixed, pests will continue to wreak havoc on flora and fauna, underpaid DoC staff will continue to work more for love than money, and corners will be cut. As history shows us, such an approach can have tragic consequences. The Greens are basking in the supposed influence they’re having on this government. Some influence.

But, at least, the Wanganui Collegiates, King's Colleges , and St Cuthbert'ses will get some relief under this government, with $35 million being earmarked to help make independent schools even more affordable for even more rich folk. It is truly inspiring to know that one's taxes are helping these long-suffering and endangered species struggling in the rugged habitats of Remuera, Wadestown, and Havelock North.