David Williams

Well, setting the scene, Chatham Island's 800 kilometres east of the South Island, and it's got an array of amazing plants and animals and fish and birds.

It's a pretty special place.

If you remember, that was where the black robin recovered.

So that was one of our most amazing experiences.

conservation stories in the history of New Zealand.

So it has, I've seen different figures, between a quarter and a third of New Zealand's endangered species.

So conservation wise, it's a very important and special place.

There you go.

So yes, you would presume, and Doc would say they do.

They do have an adequate amount of staffing to do the work that needs to be done.

But going back a couple of years, they had this big restructuring proposal.

At the time, they had 10 and a half full-time equivalent positions.

And then there was this restructure, and that was cut down to...

just under five positions in terms of full-time equivalents.

And there was, you know, there were issues.

The documents I've seen talked about it being dysfunctional.

The leadership was poor.

People didn't have a great connection to the mainland.

I guess it's neither here nor there whether that's important.

Doc thinks it's important, so it is.