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Saturday, October 9, 2010

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations.

I hope you are able to make a positive contribution to The Southland Regional Council - or should that be Environmetn Southland?

robertguyton said...

Thanks Ele - I will.
(It's both - 'Environment Southland is the Southland Regional Council's 'brand' and I aim to hold them to it :-)

Lynda Hallinan said...

Congratulations! I hope you have time for your garden & politics :)

robertguyton said...

Thanks Lynda - politics and gardening are much the same thing imho - both are fascinating, thought-provoking and exhausting if taken too seriously!
Hope your 'wedding garden' is progressing as you hoped it would!

toad said...

Congratulations, Robert. Well done.

robertguyton said...

Thanks Toad.
There are some pretty encouraging results from all around the country, from Auk down. 'Celia in Wellington' is a really exciting story - a Green win there would be fantastic plus!
Our Regional Council here has a very good makeup following this election and would please you very much if you knew the details (which I hope to share here over the next three years).
Rob

Shunda barunda said...

"There are some pretty encouraging results from all around the country, from Auk down."

That is great news for the rest of the country Robert, but I currently feel (quite literally) sick to my stomach over the new West Coast regional council.
It is the worst possible result we could have imagined and is certainly going to lead to some tragic consequences for the environment here.
I would hazard a bet that the West Coast could once again become a main focus for national environmentalism.
These guys mean to destroy the place and we can't let them.

robertguyton said...

Shunda - hmmm... can't offer much comfort from here. How did the teacher/environmentalist you described go?

toad said...

@robertguyton 9:21 AM

Our Regional Council here has a very good makeup following this election and would please you very much if you knew the details (which I hope to share here over the next three years).

Let's just hope that Rodney, Nick and Gerry don't use that as an excuse to sack you all and appoint Commissioners to rubber stamp the Lignitemare.

robertguyton said...

We'll try to obscure our scent Toad.

Shunda barunda said...

"How did the teacher/environmentalist you described go?"

He got a reasonable number of votes but still finished last in his zone.
Out of the 7 councillors we have 3 farmers, 2 of the worst miners you could imagine, an ancient bureaucrat, and a farmer friendly businessman.
We can expect a legal challenge to take control of the wetlands off DOC.
Once that happens we will see unprecedented expansion of alluvial mining and huge dairy expansion into areas previously protected by regulation.

robertguyton said...

Could you make a latex 'ancient bureaucrat' suit and slip into a meeting or two and vote for the environment?
Desperate measures for desperate situations Shunda!