Yes ladies and gentlemen. The most polluted place in NZ is Auckland. Oh yes it is. There it is all over the TV on the 23rd Jan. Yes TV1 News. The NZ Herald followed up next over 3 days. Toxic water readings stun expert. Housing cannot stop for sewage. The Mayor. Finally Anti- dairy stance looks like economic sabotage. 27th Jan A 27.
Yep looks to me just like that. Green Peace. The ISIS of our economy. Will the tourists stop coming to Auckland. I do not think so. maybe we should mount a publicity stunt in our tourist markets advising travelers not to come. Why not. After all it has got back to me that one of our Nuffield Scholars, was caught out stating to arrivals at his touristy place stating “I am a Nuffield Scholar. I used it to travel to Scotland lecturing on how bad NZ agriculture is with regard to water quality”. Yes sure thing. The couple who were in the party were shocked being they are dairy farmers in HORIZONS Region and under the pump in the Mangatainoke catchment. Gutted. What a drop kick. You must agree. What a shocker. These are not the first people to tell me this. The local community are well aware of this fellows activity. Needless to say he has no friends in the valley.
Back to Green Peace. Given that Auckland has nearly 1/2 NZs population it is only right to state that nearly 1/2 Green Peace’s members must come from Auckland. Here it is. Most beach’s un-swimmable. Dangerously high Ecoli readings. 190,000 cfu/100ml water. A level more than 1500 times the upper safe limit and a serious threat to human health. The safe limit is below 126/100 mls. Herald pg A3 25th Jan. $1 billion to fix and then it will only be a 80% job.
Raw human effluent. Solids and used personal effects floating in the sea. Not to mention manufactured waste such as tyres, fuel discharges, plastics and similar waste, plus much much more. What a bunch of drop kicks. Even ISIS would disown them.
So my advice to these idiots. GET YOUR HAND OFF IT. Stop patting your self on the back of your head and put your tongue away. What a bunch of wallys. I have to say that media would not have liked shoving up these guys. Must have been some discussion. I note that I have not heard one more word about this TV commercial, Dirty Dairy, Green Peace was going to air. Yep there it is . I cannot believe it. But then I did report on Auckland’s problems many many months ago when I was on sewage and waste water plants lack of compliance. Not only that but the media have not gone near the rubbish dump either. Now that will tell a similar story. The greatest degrader of the environment is people and their urban environments. Nobody can say other wise.
While we are on these wacky subjects. Here is another shocker. Local Govt and the MPI are going hard out encouraging Land Use Change. They are not allowing the market to determine the best land use out comes. Manuka Honey. Lets talk about that share market darling, Comvita. Here it is in the Herald Jan the 24th, pg B1. Bad weather stings Comvita. Honey maker expects a 60% short fall in honey and same in earnings. Share price dropped from $8.50 to $6 over night 23rd Jan. That is down from $12 12 months ago. Selling off assets as hard as they can go. Yep abit of a shocker. I have sold my farm One of the interested parties was the NZ Redwood company, a sister company to the NZ Carbon company. Not interested in, was the final out come. Saving our dosh for 2018. Stating, then they expect many distressed honey farms to come on the market. Many of them have taken up the MPI (Ministry Primary Industry) and local Govts sweetener and planted these flash varieties of manuka under the Afforestation Grant Scheme where by the above subsidize purchase and planting costs. The MPI takes the first 5yrs carbon and then the rest is all the land owners. The Goss is that the flash plants do not like the rough and tumble of the out back and are turning their toes up. Add in 2 bad seasons weather wise, in a row and it is not good. I have discussed this subject in another blog a few months ago. Got to be worse than farming. But then Central and Local Govt is ruthless in their determination to effect Land Use Change. And unfortunately too many people are easily duped into parting with their dosh.
Well Well out of the Blue the Local Iwi Chairs ring up. Mike come and talk to us. We want to get a understanding of what you know about this One Plan. That was last Friday. My mate John and I went along. The discussion canvassed every thing from Fish and Games Appeal to the Enviro-court and their chances. To sewage schemes and dodgy science, carbon and dirty dairy. And yes the One Plan. I already knew them all from my Horizons days, so it was a friendly affair, yes relaxed, but very forth right. I like that. And I think they like that type of conversation too. Every body knows where they stand. Never the less we had nothing in common, and as John and I agreed as we left, we are unlikely to hear from them again.
I will report on the Fish and game Appeal to the Enviro-court. I have down loaded the court documents and appellants statements. It is clear as that Horizons have not got a leg to stand on. If it gets to court. Horizons and others May have a chance if they can get Thompson dropped as the judge, although have to say not likely. My take on the issue is that Horizons regulatory staff are taking a blank piece of paper and writing “Dear people. Here is your consent for 17 yrs.” Now I am not sure if this is a deliberate attempt to inflame Fish and Game ,as lets face it. In the Enviro-court in the first instance when Horizons allowed their Staff member/expert witness to change sides and support Fish and Game and others, well what can you say. Mates.
I expect another court appeal to follow , this time to the High Court based on Justice Ko’s decision, as per para 22-24. In the High Court, Hort NZ and Fed Up Farmers v MWRC. Discharges and Nutrient Limits.. Horizons must be seen to be open and transparent with regard to their activities in the Enviro-court lest the appellant’s ,and others, right to natural justice has been deigned. Simply put. Judge Ko’s also had some polite but significant comments about Judge Thompson apparent willingness to over look Horizons abdication from court proceedings. Horizons walked away from defending the Decisions version of the One Plan. Worse still the majority of the councilors did not have a clue. Yep I will be at the hearing. No doubt about it. A lot of dirty stuff went on out of sight of the council. By those members on the Advisory Group, Committee, Hearings panel what ever the minutes called it on the day. 2 members Jill White and Murray Guy held or do hold prominent positions . White as a Land Care director, and Minister in Parliament. Guy as the Catchment Board Chair and Director on Center Port. Both showed a horrendous degree of biased. It must surely call into question their professional integrity and attitude with regard to the other hearings panel(s) they sat on with regard to the One Plan Hearings. Given that Chapter One of the One Plan states. The Big 4 are interrelated. Out comes achieved in one will be positive for the out comes sought in the others. White was a director of Land Care whilst siting on these Panels. A direct conflict, as Land Care provided Horizons with its science. Oh my God. I hope all this comes out. Good chance it will. Of course all this is well documented. Not every body was asleep.
I have had a look through This months Country Wide Mag. 3 good articles covering the Waikato Regional Councils efforts of destroying hill country farming in that region. The costs to be imposed on the industry is horrendous. Past Fed Chair Bill Garland and ardent conservationist says. Great stuff. But it will not stop sediment to water. Not a hope. Another is quoted saying. No body is going to spend that sort of money when they know worse is to come, is the only out come. The Banking industry has finally woken up and are expressing concern .it would have to be said then .Who is going to finance all this?
That drop kick of a organization that we all have to pay a levy ,Beef and Lamb has finally come to industries aid. They would not have a bar of helping us with the ONE PLAN. Can you believe it. They have employed Fish and Games top woman to run seminars on how to make a submission. And encouraging submitters to be sympathetic to the Plan?????
It is this organization that is actively encouraging farmers to take on the farm environment plans that Regional councils will use to put us out of business. Mapping. That is the key to it.
Remember last months blog and I referred to Mr Kieth Kelly,s news letter to Fed Members spilling the beans on Govts agenda to change the Use of Land on 1.2 million hec of land across the Central North Is including Gisborne and parts of Otago Well It is all in this Mag. Yep Terry the editor must read my blog. Thanks Mate. You can print my article on my interpretation of the RMA too.
My OMF news letter back in September informed us that carbon had cracked $19/ton. Driven by speculators. This is way out of wack with Europe and American markets which then were approx. $8 NZ per ton. And the Straight Times at that time reported that the market was “disintegrating”. There is not the emitters in NZ that need that sought of mitigation. Who is driving the market. If it was a speculator or speculators then most certainly they would have done the speculator thing and sold it down significantly. That has not happened. Who is driving it. Why?
Really gets my blood pressure up. Bye for now.