Nick Smith says he did not even know a document existed even though he was given a full briefing on it. And after he gets involved a submission critical of the environmental effect the proposed Ruataniwha Dam will have on the Tukituki River is drastically altered. There is something distinctly smelly about this.
Hey John, how much public money are you going to pay the wealthy to “buy” our assets? (And how just desperate are you…?)
It wasn’t a dirty pipe. That is the claim made by veterinarian and farm performance consultant Frank Rowson, as reported by Stuff yesterday. Rowson says “This disease originates in contaminated feed and animal manure”. Let the enquiries begin – we need to be honest about the problem and fix it.
Stuff’s Pattrick Smellie makes the case that the Fonterra scandal is a product of deregulation. The lesson here is that Mike Joy and other scientists are right. To protect its environment, its brand, its exports and its economy, NZ needs to strengthen regulatory protections and clean up its act.
Noticed a lot of flooding in the world headlines recently? Me too. What’s up with that?
Ken Perrott at Open Parachute has been debunking some of the nonsense around fluoridated water by investigating claims (his background is in scientific research). It is refreshing after reading some of the recent misinterpreted drivel around about the science.
Water is becoming a precious resource, under threat from pollution, over use, population growth, & commercial profiteering. The Green & Labour Parties are very critical of Key’s government weakening the RMA in favour of commercial gains, while over-riding local government plans.
The Great Barrier Reef is dying. We are leaving the next generations a poorer world.
We’re now experiencing the worst drought in the North Island in recorded history. It comes just five years after the previous severe drought and there was a lesser one in between. Let’s not beat around the bush, it’s climate change. Bill English came very close on Monday to admitting that climate change induced-droughts will make bailouts unsustainable.
The drought shows how important social protection systems are. When the unexpected happens – your farm dries up, you get sick, you lose your job, you find yourself alone raising your kids – the community steps in by way of tax funded Social Protection.
No Right Turn with the latest on National’s ongoing annexation of Canterbury.
I/S at No Right Turn on the Nats’ contempt for democracy in Canterbury. Elections remain on hold so that the commissioners’ agenda can be completed without unwelcome input from urban representation.
The Antarctic Ocean Alliance is hoping that Key’s experience in Antarctica will move him to join the effort to create a marine reserve there. Seems unlikely to me – but I hope that Key proves me wrong…
A win for the Nats, a loss for the country. The Maori Council’s request for a judicial review of water rights has been rejected.
Auckland City Council is developing a computational model of the predicted sewage-related pollution at its beaches. A forecast for sewage, a Shitcast if you will. I’m not protesting the idea of forecasting pollution. I’m protesting the sad fact that it is necessary in “100% Pure” NZ. I think John Key needs to find himself some different advisors to tell him it isn’t so.
Anthony has already mentioned the amazing record of us winning both first and second prize in the first Fossil of the Day awards […]
No Right Turn on the overthrow of local democracy in Canterbury…
As expected, the High Court advised today that the government should hold off sale of Mighty River Power. The government is complying.
Amidst all the current scandal and chaos, the Nats’ privatisation agenda grinds on.
Anyone notice that the Right’s arguments against ownership of water – apart from being a willful confusion of ownership in rights to water, which is what iwi are actually inserting and which are clearly enjoyed by a range of people under our law at present, and ownership of water itself (something, apparently, limited to bottled water sellers) – would apply equally to land?
Only 12 people turned up to Key’s first sham talks with iwi. He might have gotten a better turnout if he had come with cupcakes or, you know, a genuine intention to negotiate in good faith.
It seems that whenever a matter arises that involves some claim of collective ownership or control by Maori, John Key comes up with what he describes as an ‘elegant solution’. If Key can come up with a string of such solutions I thought maybe I could give it a try. Therefore, this is my attempt at developing an ‘elegant solution’ to the matter of Maori claims to the ownership of water.
The Nats are beginning their sham consultation with a handful of tame ‘Iwi Leaders’ today. The hui will be by invitation and will not include the Maori Council, which iwi have appointed to lead for them on the water rights issue. Of course, National doesn’t want a real debate. It won’t genuinely discuss shares plus. This is a fake process. And it will all end up in court next year.
Yesterday’s national hui on water rights has resulted in the best possible outcome for Maori, a decision to present a unified front in the face of National’s divide and rule tactics.
Puddleglum at The Political Scientist has written an encyclopedic and scathing critique of the Nats’ dictatorship in Canterbury.
No Right Turn on the Nats’ continuing contempt for democracy in Canterbury.
It’s easy to see why Key has forbidden National MPs from attending the national water rights hui – he’s playing divide and rule with Maori. More difficult to understand is the Maori Party’s craven decision to stay away. Hone Harawira condemns them in the strongest possible language.
National’s asset sales programme is in crisis. Key has three options on asset sales – plow ahead, cut a deal with iwi, or call it quits. The smart thing to do, for the good of the country and for National’s own good, remains to drop the policy altogether. But they won’t. Instead, they’ll play the race card. But that old joker isn’t the trump it once was.
For some reason the Nats are in a hurry to complete their privatisation programme within two years. Anyone in any doubt as to how the process of consultation with Maori will play out might be informed by some recent history.
Although Key’s privatisation programme has hit plenty of problems with Maori water rights, his job is made a whole lot easier by the luxury of an ethical main opposition party.
Does Key respect the Waitangi Tribunal’s call for a temporary halt to asset sales and its likely call for a further delay when it presents its full findings in September? If he does, he looks weak, gives the Keep Our Assets petition more time. If he doesn’t, he picks a fight with Maori, resulting in court injunctions, again delaying the sales, hurting the sale price, making him look weak.
Key has been giving different messages on the water rights issue to the Maori Party and to the wider public. No one knows what, if anything, his “promises” mean. Why isn’t the Maori Party (which has been burned before) seeking urgent clarification?
Key is already qualifying a promise he’s made on Maori water rights. Does the promise mean anything at all?
The meeting between Key and the Maori Party leaders last night reached it’s predictable conclusion. From his point of view Key has played this brilliantly.
I don’t know which is stranger, a currency-trading capitalist denigrating people for maximising their economic opportunities, or claims dating back to The Treaty being passed off as somehow superficial.
