Green candidate and soon-to-be MP for Invercargill Dave Kennedy has taken off the gloves and is raining blows down upon those he says are responsible for the Waituna 'situation' - first up, the farmers who did what has been done to the catchment, and secondly Kennedy's old adversary Stuart Collie, ex-chairman of Environment Southland. The straight-shooting Green says:
"Past Environment Southland Councils operated very much like a branch of Federated Farmers and the previous chair, Stuart Collie, openly supported the philosophy that the environment had to take second place to economic growth."
Environment minister Nick Smith has been taking aim at the decisions made by the 'old council' too and is rumbling away not-quite-below the surface, with not-so-subtle threats to the council's future. Both Dave Kennedy and I were active and vocal challengers to the decisions and statements made by Collie during his reigh as chairman of Environment Southland and it's most interesting to find that Collie's legacy did not disappear from the scene when he did.
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.com/2011/07/dairying-is-problem.html
Sunday, July 3, 2011
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9 comments:
3 July 2011
Your view
In regards your editorial on water pollution and the Waituna Lagoon, I disagree with you that the solution is a local problem. Regional Councils such as Environment Southland can only affect laws and policy into action, if they have been given by Government, the tough legislative power to enforce them.
Dr Smith in saying Environment Southland is to blame for our water problems, is simply trying to pass the buck of responsibility; for his own Governments lack of legislative support, to regional Councils on environment pollution. Dr Smith response to the problems of Waituna is as farcical as Federated Farmers response, that the answer to diary pollution was for Regional councils to spend money on good science, to arrest the problem.
The selfish polluters within our environment do so, as they are well aware our present pollution environment laws are soft and ineffectual in stopping them. Regional councils can only arrest the pollutions problems they have, by coming down hard on polluters. For this to happen our government needs to put into effect tough pollution legislation, which places severe penalties on defaulters.
The Government also needs to change the Resource Management Act, giving councils the ability; to refuse a consent based on the negative cumulative effect approval will have on the environment. This could be required in situations where the giving an approval of larger dairy holdings, would be the tipping point to severely affect our environment.
Pauline McIntosh
Pauline - you've got your gloves off too!
Good on you and again, you're seeing things clearly.
Green candidate and soon-to-be MP for Invercargill Dave Kennedy.....
it was here that I stopped reading
Then you won't know what happened next :-)
actually Im with you on this one - as we flew back for the titi island I was lucky enough to get a low swoop of the land we knew as the Awarua wetlands which stretch from Colyers Island to the fertisler works and over to Tiwai.. I was gobsmacked and dismayed at the huge channels that had been dug to "drain" the swamp. Wetlands are often not seen as sexy as big podocarp forests and as such are treated badly. So to me it looks as it if it was a win to dairying and a sad loss to an important ecosystem. lord only knows what the impact will be on Bluff Harbour.
brunette - I felt the same way when on a similar flight. The encroachment of farm into the wetland is shocking. Why there hasn't been a sizable buffer established at least, is hard to fathom. The drains you refer to are a crime against nature, at least against the lagoon in any case. An image, showing where the farmland, flat and green as a billiard table, meets the lagoon, would be a wake-up call to Southlanders who haven't been in the area. The drains you mention, would shock people, if they were to see them and cause them to shake their heads in disbelief.
It was the worst thing I have seen for quite some time. Sadly I was so overwhelmed by what i saw that I did not take any photos. But someone needs to be called to account for it.Brunette
Actually - sorry to rant but it affected me the same way when I saw some appalling clear felling up in the Rowallan - it was like a bomb site - While the Awarua situation is like death by a thousand cuts for the Awarua wetlands. Yes some of us rightys do have a green streak.. In fact bustedblonde was one of the main instigators of the Lords River settlement which saved a few old trees..... Brunette
Rant away - I know I do. I drove into the Rowellen years ago and was sickened by the abuse the land was suffering. It hardened my resolve to oppose such behaviour.
Three cheers for bustedblonde!
She's a trooper!
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