Interesting that Fonterra were willing to concede that they have made some pretty significant errors.

Mike Joy, as usual, was out there trying to get central and local govt to take the action needed. It was cool that he got a chance to share his passion for NZ native fish – I hope he got a few converts from the programme because we have AWESOME native fish.

Watching Alan Crafar in deep denial about his convictions for dirty dairying was extraordinary – ‘just one man’s opinion’ he reckons; true, but that one man was an Environment Court Judge. I wonder how he’ll respond if the judge orders a custodial sentence at the sentencing hearing on August 24 for Crafar’s latest set of water pollution convictions. And would Fonterra continue to take his milk or even cut the price they pay him for it as a penalty; and if not, what would you actually have to do to make Fonterra actually do something?

By the way, can anyone think think of a good reason to keep the weir across the Hutt River at Silverstream (near the sewerage overflow station)? It stops fish access up the river. Surely we should get rid of the thing….

Much like a monkey aboard a 1960s Space Rocket it appears food prices don’t want to come back down to earth either.  A brand of chocolate that is now banned at Auckland Zoo seems to be partly responsible. Apparently the increase in Grocery Sub Group One was driven by a price increase for chocolate that was ‘influenced by a decrease in the size of some chocolate blocks’.

Alarmingly one of my favourite characters from the Munch Bunch Tom Tomato has also skyrocketed in price. Lettuce is up too but this vegetable was too unhip to have a dedicated Munch Bunch character so doesn’t have a snazzy cartoon persona.

But it’s not all slightly bad news – it’s actually even worse news when one realises that apparently recessions love fast food global mega burger corp.  Of course none of the above food price rises for veges coupled with a potential boom in fast food will help our obesity problem.

Also not helping is the government decision to allow any old rubbish back into our schools by getting rid of the healthy food guidelines.  In keeping with modern times how soon will it be before the nation’s youth are dosing up on some cocaine and downing a few demons before hitting their enviro-schools study – oh hang on the funding to that’s gone. 

Anyway you can save the kids from the threat of demons and cocaine by signing Sue K’s petition to keep schools a healthy place for kids and food – while there’s still time!

H182/09 – A Hector’s dolphin capture was reported from a commercial fishing vessel on the east coast of the South island, Friday 8 May 2009. The animal was sent to Massey for necropsy, more details to follow.

This week the High Court is hearing a judicial review of the previous Fisheries Minister’s set of measures to improve protection for Hector’s and Maui Dolphins. As I said at the time they were announced, they went far enough to arrest population decline in some areas, but fell short of guaranteeing the dolphins’ long-term survival. Commercial fishing leaders promptly challenged them, as they have done with many other sustainability measures.

Underlying the problem though are inherent weaknesses in the Fisheries Act and the Marine Mammals Protection Act, and a lack of willingness from Governments to apply the powers that are there. I have a Members Bill ready to go that would strengthen both laws, and we’ll continue to lobby to improve the willingness aspect.

The death reported today was a vessel with an observer. Six deaths were reported in 1997-8 from the observed 89 days out of 351. No deaths were reported from the 262 days without observers: to state the obvious, this was either a statistical anomaly or illustrates the unreliability of voluntary reporting and the importance of observers. In response, the then Minister of Conservation, Dr Nick Smith, said:

What makes me particularly angry is that fishermen have for years failed to report fatalities and denied there was a problem… I remain cynical that fishermen claim there were no deaths during the 262 days when observers were not present.

Earlier this year the previous Minister of Fisheries, Jim Anderton, explained past increases in the observer programme, saying:

I made the decision that more observers were needed on fishing vessels because research showed a very interesting detail: 100% of the reports of by-catches of dolphins and seabirds came from the 4% of vessels that had observers aboard. Reflect on that for a moment: only 4% of boats have observers. They are the only boats that ever report any by-catch of these iconic species.

Yet, the new Minister of Fisheries, Phil Heatley, answered a question from me with this:

703 (2009). Metiria Turei to the Minister of Fisheries (02 Mar 2009): What, if any, evidence has he seen as to the comparative accuracy of quota and bycatch reporting between observed and non-observed boats?
Hon Phil Heatley (Minister of Fisheries) replied: I have not seen any evidence as to the comparative accuracy of quota and bycatch reporting between observed and non-observed boats.

Unfortunately, this year’s Budget trimmed back the observer programme by $1million this year and out-years. As p76 of Vote Fisheries records, this results in “Total number of Observer coverage days delivered” being reduced. This accompanies funding cuts for ‘Fisheries Compliance’ (promoting voluntary compliance with the law and enforcement of illegal activity) and ‘Fisheries Operations’ (advice to set sustainable catch levels and create standards like the Hectors/Maui Management Plan) of about $2million (6-7%) each (pp73-76).

The Greens advocate a sustainable fishing industry that protects jobs and income for New Zealanders into the future. Given the dire record of  voluntary reporting, this requires increased observer coverage, but also changes to the way we fish. We can feed ourselves and have a healthy export industry without sacrificing our dolphins.

To steal from a drinking campaign: “It’s not the fishing; it’s how we’re fishing.”

Stopping big business from influencing politics is probably not Nationals strongest suit …. So its really important that they hear from the people what they want in their democracy. So get stuck in – there’s no guarantee they will listen but its worth giving it a shot!

Here’s some links to Green thinking on electoral finance.  

Submissions close 26 June.

Predictably, on the radio interview National blamed Labour and Labour blamed National.

Actually they’re both right – New Zealand’s rise in deforestation and slump in afforestation in recent years is a plague from both their houses. Labour failed to come up with a price on carbon until the dying days of their administration, and National – before and after the election – failed to give certaintly to the sector that forestry would earn credits and those credit would be worth something.

But it’s not just about quantity. The NatLabs have often agreed with Green ideas of diversifying our production forests beyond the Pinus radiata hegemony, and creating higher-value wood products rather than just the raw and methyl-bromide drenched logs that make up the bulk of our forestry exports. But they both singularly failed to do anything to change this situation. The latest stats show that “radiata pine is the dominant species, making up 89 percent of the planted forest area. Douglas fir is the next most common species, making up 6 percent”. And the slump in sales due to the recession is exacerbated because we have all our eggs in the raw log basket.

If we’d applied Greens’ policies on forestry and climate change years ago, deforestation would have long ceased and new plantings of quality trees would be well established. However, rather than just spouting “we told you so”, as the Greens’ forestry spokesperson I am promoting specific ideas and plans, and we hope the Government will take an interest. MAF’s forward-looking study signals we have to move in that direction anyway, but I think the sooner we do it the more our economy and environment will benefit. I am also exploring options for adding a forestry component to our Green New Deal we launched last week.

The fact that New Zealand is doing business with a country ruled by one of the vilest regimes on earth is not however newsworthy – after all the overarching mantra of free trade can allow us to do business and glad hand anyone.

What is newsworthy apparently is if some in the Maori Party decide that after three years of New Zealand achieving little in Fiji with the diplomatic equivalent of a big stick – ‘hey lets go and see for ourselves and have a chat to our Pacific brethren’.

This approach of going to see what the situation is perhaps seeing if there is anyway of advancing the slow moving and jaded progress of Fijian democracy is causing many in the media to work themselves into a right old lather. I reckon they should chill out and perhaps take a few tips from ‘our Keith’.

A week or so back Keith was calling for the United Nation’s to stop using peacekeepers from Fiji, and he also supported Fiji being suspended from the Pacific Islands Forum. This is because Keith opposes military rulers  that censor the news and seem intent on dragging out the prospect of elections. However, he also supports Hone going to Fiji to talk to the political players – even the Big Man.

The consequences of not engaging could be pretty grim. A couple of week’s a blog war broke out (and no-one wins a blog war!) between No Right Turn and Gordon Campbell over the vexed issue of Fiji.

Gordon was saying that “our current diplomatic policy is only likely to push Bainimarama further into isolation, and further towards a closer alliance with China, thus providing China with a military and economic ally right on our doorstep.”

China isn’t exactly a paragon of democracy and there are no free and fair elections planned in China anytime soon, but for some reason (Free Trade perhaps?) our Prime Ministers such as Helen Clark and John Key love glad handing in Beijing.

So maybe Keith may have a wee mosey in the sun and see for himself what the situation on the ground is – he won’t be going to get a sun-tan or glad handing dictators but rather to make the best of a bad situation. He’s done “non-government” diplomacy trips before – to Sri Lanka (2003), West Papua (2005) and Tonga (2006). Keith’s philosophy is that every bit helps.

Foreign Affairs is a million shades of grey and you never win with just one approach.