Cape Town
A 100 day count down.
water
NRT: National resorts to racism on water
I/S at No Right Turn: ”
This isn’t a “Pandora’s box”. The model for an easy, full and final settlement to resolve this exists, and iwi are keen. What is lacking is goodwill from the government to sign it. And Finlayson knows all this – so he is actively trying to mislead the New Zealand public about it, trying to appeal to the racism of rednecks in order to protect the stolen “rights” of a privileged few”.
Rivers of poo protest
Photo: Fairfax / T Manch
Protecting our biggest export income earner
Tourism Export Council: “The National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) in its current form is nothing more than a PR-stunt from Government who continue to ignore scientists and expert opinion re the state of our freshwater. The NPS-FM does not address the serious problems facing our waterways and, in fact, will make them worse.”
A legacy of poisoned water
We won’t be able to say that we didn’t have ample warning, with a another detailed and damning report on water quality out yesterday. Does National really want to be remembered for allowing the poisoning of our water?
Higgins on National’s shit creek
Higgins: “Water quality should be a massive issue this election. Some friends, who are the kind of dyed-in-the-wool National supporters who call everyone else a loony leftie, now say water quality will guide their vote and it can’t possibly go to National.”…
Isn’t that convenient
A full report into the Havelock North water crisis has been delayed until (surprise!) after the election.
Down the Gurgler.
Getting sick, tired and angry of this malarkey.
NRT: “Too hard”
No Right Turn: “The real barrier to National … acting on this is because that “no-one owns water, first come, first served” policy disproportionately benefits one group and allows them to profiteer from a public resource while destroying its value to others. That group is farmers – and they donate to the National Party.”
Community groups abandon Smith’s water forum
Will Nick Smith get the message and set in place a realistic consultation process and safe standards, or will he persist with a plan so bad that no one wants to be associated with it?
Swimmable standards that aren’t for all of our rivers except most of them
Swimmable standards that aren’t, for all of our rivers except most of them, sometime maybe not now. Nat policy at its finest.
The Nats’ new ‘swimmable’ rivers aren’t
Under the new standards we have up to a 1 in 6 risk of serious infection at the times that we actually swim in rivers, and Smith is trying to hide this fact by fudging around with year-long averages. David Parker’s analysis yesterday was bang on.
Auckland’s shit beaches
Not meant as a general criticism. Auckland has lovely beaches. When they aren’t drowning in shit that is.
100% Pure
A selection of tweets from this morning. You may detect a theme.
World Water Week
Never heard of it? Neither had I.
Water quality too important for bird-brained excuses
Nick Smith’s latest excuse for inaction on water quality is birds. Yes birds. You couldn’t make this shit up.
For a dose of blessed sanity, watch the (10 min) webcast by Dr Mike Joy explaining what the real problem is.
“Flushing flows”
A new phrase is about to enter NZ’s clean green image lexicon.
Key vs science on water quality
Watershit Down
John Key has announced an inquiry into the Havelock North water crisis. But has it been set up to fail the residents of the Central Hawkes Bay?
The Friday dump on Havelock North
What a surprise that the news that NZ’s worst ever waterborne disease outbreak is most likely caused by livestock should be the subject of a classic Friday 5pm news dump.
Clean up our water!
The Christchurch Commons
Meanwhile, down in Christchurch the plan is to put water back in the centre of our physical, cultural and spiritual lives.
Shit in the water
The damage so far in the Havelock North “gastro” outbreak is one possible death, two older people in intensive care, 18 hospitalised, 50 making their way to the emergency department, 280 notifications, and hundreds of kids staying away from school.
ECAN turning a blind eye
Is ECAN just another typical Nat party fuckup, or are they deliberately turning a blind eye?
Who needs water anyway
Or waterways are starting to stink as much as our murky tax havens.
Oravida and the water that no one owns
Oravida is in the news again. It is exporting hundreds of millions of dollars of fresh water and the cost to the authorities of $500 per year.
Who is buying Canterbury water?
Billions of litres of Canterbury water are being sold off. Duncan Garner asks if Oravida is the buyer.
Pure spin vs. pure water
Yesterday a “host” of students marched to the Beehive with a petition of calling for all freshwater in New Zealand to be swimmable.
NRT: Pillaging the Rakaia
No Right Turn with the latest on National’s ongoing annexation of Canterbury.
Everyone hears what they want to hear
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?
Welded to National
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.
“Opportunistic”
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.
The Smiths: Getting it Right
Lockwood and Nick did good work yesterday. So praise where praise is due: Keep it up boys.
Govt ignored advice to save lives with lower drink-drive limit
The government was told that lowering the drink-drive limit would save 33 lives and $238 million a year. They ignored it. Why? I reckon the only money they were worried about was donations from the booze barons. These idiots don’t bother with basic cost vs benefit analyses. It’s all about pay-offs for their mates. And donation kickbacks.
Fighting back against privatisation
The Government’s privatisation by stealth agenda continues – from ACC to Whanau Ora to mining to PEDA to water.
And the fight back is gathering strength.
Labour to restore democracy in Canterbury
Last month, the Government abolished the democratically-elected Canterbury Regional Council known as Environment Canterbury. Not only were the current elected officials booted out, Cantabarians were denied their right to elect the next council in the upcoming local body elections. Now, Labour has pledged to restore democracy to Canterbury.
Another hand-out for bludgers
Our glorious capitalist system should mean farms that can’t handle a bad time fail. Just like any other business. Land gets used for something better. It’s the market. But capitalists don’t really believe in the market. Come the bad times, the farmers want another hand out. So government’s giving them the dole. Yup, the dole.