by frog
Video from the Green question in the House today. Russel challenges the Prime Minister to show some leadership and act to prevent the proposed factory-style dairy farms from going ahead in the Mackenzie country.
As Russel pointed out in these questions and this press release, the Government has the power under the RMA to declare a matter to be of national significance, and “call in” consents relating to it.
If, as he said in the House, the Prime Minister shares the concerns of the Greens and Fonterra, and agrees that these proposals could damage New Zealand’s international reputation and competitive advantage, he should do something about it! (The National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee that he refers to in these answers is slow to act, can’t make binding recommendations, and doesn’t have the jurisdiction to address issues like New Zealand’s tarnished reputation.)
Don’t forget to check out our submission guide and join the facebook group – nearly 600 members already!
Published in Environment & Resource Management by frog on Tue, December 8th, 2009
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
I’m looking forward to the parliamentary reply tonight now (10 pm on channel 94 for Sky digital holders, on freeview too I think) I heard Gerry Brownlee had a bit of a tanty about garages today too…
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This is corruption.
Pure and simple – political corruption. It doesn’t matter if any money changed hands, or any deals were done. It is still corruption.
Abuse of the legislative process to advantage an influential individual, a mover and shaker, and whom no doubt supports either the National or Act parties, is pure corruption.
Go on Russel, say it in Parliament. This government is descending to the ethics of Joh Bjelke-Petersen, whom Russel will no doubt recall from his youth.
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Not to appear a spanner etc but aren’t RMA proceedings on these proposed Mackenzie Basin dairying businesses underway presently.?
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Looks like the Nats have got smugness and obfuscation down to a fine art. Pity they don’t put a similar amount of effort into good governance.
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@tomfarmer: Good question. Yes, the submission process through ECan is currently in progress. However, S142(2) of the RMA determines the “Restriction on when Minister may call in matter”, and states that for notified consents, it must be called in “more than 5 working days after the close of the last day on which submissions may be made”. This means the EPA has until 23 Dec to call the consents in. The RMA process is somewhat limited in its scope to take into account broad considerations, but a call-in would allow a wider and more national assessment to be undertaken, which is in line with the national-level concerns being raised by the Greens, Fonterra, Animal Welfare Groups, and the New Zealand public.
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Snivelling Smith says: ” It is unlikely that the factory farming in the McKenzie Basin will meet the threshold for call in under the Resource Management Act”.
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thanks for that, frog. Out od interest you mention the EPA.. is this an actual entity at present..?
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