Green Hawkes Bay

A mixed result: pleasing to increase Green MPs from 6 to 8 (and possibly 9 on special votes), but not as high as polling was suggesting. And the National-Act-Dunne Government will be bad news for the environment and the most vulnerable of our society. Expect the Greens to be a feisty opposition!

In Tukituki we picked up our Party Vote substantially, by 50% on 2005. This was helped by key booths of Te Awanga, Haumoana and Clive shifting from Napier to Tukituki (and therefore consequentially weakening Napier’s Green vote), and a good campaign on the ground. Our 5.7% support in Tukituki is not far below the 6.4% nationall, and the 50% improvement is significantly better than the 20% improvement nationally.

Hawke’s Bay can look forward to Gisborne-based Green MP Catherine Delahunty visiting the Bay regularly!

As the evening draws to a close, I have stopped campaigning and all election signs are now down. The fate of the country is now in the hands of 3+ million Kiwis.

I’d like to thank all the wonderful members and supporters in Hawke’s Bay who have given so much to this campaign – not for themselves but for the planet and girls like Aila in our award-winning images.

Tomorrow we can vote for the tired policies of the past, or for a fresh Green vision. Party vote Green.

Quentin

Green Party candidate Quentin Duthie is pleased at the inclusion of an “Excellence in Sustainable Business Award” in the Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce 2008 Business Awards to be announced tomorrow [Thursday] night, but questions why the Award is “Special” rather than a “Main” Award [in the programme].

“The finalists in the ‘Excellence in Sustainability’ category are all highly deserving of the award.

“Pyroclassic Fires of Havelock North took the plunge and focused on a super energy efficient firebox design. Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons, the Government Spokesperson for Energy Efficiency, is so impressed by the Pyroclassic she has two!”

“The Pyroclassic design has very low PM10 emissions and is very efficient with wood, so is part of the solution to Napier and Hastings’ air pollution problems, along with insulation and other clean heat sources – all of which will be supported by the Greens’ $1 billion warm dry homes fund.

“The Greens were delighted to share our A&P Show marquee with Prometheus Ethical Finance, who model ethical and sustainable finance investment at a time when our Super Fund invests in weapons manufacturers involved in the nuclear weapons industry, and foreign banks like ANZ/National finance illegal rainforest destruction in Papua New Guinea.

“Launching the Greens’ recently Tourism policy, Co-leader Dr Russel Norman noted that our tourism industry is 100% dependent on our environment.

“The Napier’s City Council’s Tourism Services Department is an appropriate finalist, recognising the strong integration of sustainability in their operations and promotion of the international Green Globe 21 accreditation process.

“Last but not least, ECO Water Recycling Systems from Clive have invested heavily in research to find ways to reduce the dual pressures of water availability and treatment, and sewage treatment and disposal – two very important environmental issues in Hawke’s Bay.

“With such high-calibre finalists in the ‘Excellence in Sustainable Business Award’ one can’t help wondering why ‘sustainability’ is still seen as an add-on by the Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce as implied in the Award being treated as a ‘Special Award’ rather than a ‘Main Award’.

“For Hawke’s Bay to get ahead in sustaining our economy, environment and community, all Hawke’s Bay businesses need to model sustainability – it cannot be pigeon-holed as an optional extra.

“However, it is pleasing to see strong progress towards this goal of a genuinely sustainable economy and environment”, concluded Mr Duthie.

The Green Party has released a list of Hawke’s Bay dairy farms that breached resource consent conditions in 2006/7, and renewed calls for action to protect public rights to fish and swim in rivers.

“The list of dairy farm consent compliance in the 2006/7 year shows that 9% of Hawke’s Bay dairy farms did not comply with their consents even when minor non-compliance is excluded and 11% breached monitoring and reporting requirements”, said Tukituki candidate Quentin Duthie. …

“9% non-compliance differs from the Clean Streams Accord: Snapshot of Progress 2006/2007 report released in February, which said 7% of Hawke’s Bay dairy farms were non-compliant.

“An October review of the actual data by Forest & Bird and Fish & Game not only found the report data flawed, but that water pollution from dairy has worsened since the Accord was signed!

The Clean Streams Accord – a voluntary agreement between Fonterra, Government and Councils – aims for fairly mild targets to improve water quality, but even these are not being achieved.

“Far from nearing the 2003 Accord target of immediate 100% compliance, 14% of NZ dairy farms breached consents in 2006/7 in a more-than-minor way.

“Hawke’s Bay is better than the national average, but 9% of farms letting the side down and contributing to our worsening water pollution is still too many.

”I hope the 2007/8 figures, which will be available soon, show a considerable improvement.

Yesterday the Green Party released its plan to clean up New Zealand’s rivers, lakes and aquifers to:

· Set firm target dates for councils to ensure rivers are swimmable again

· Encourage a requirement for consents to convert new areas to dairy and limit run-off

· Establishing a dedicated fund to support sustainable farming

· Measure and charge for commercial water use to encourage efficiency

· Allow councils to impose moratoria on water-takes for over-allocated catchments

Green Party candidate for Tukituki, Quentin Duthie, is outraged that the Government and Regional Councils continue to refuse to release information on contaminated site locations, and says the public has a right to know.

Saturday’s Dominion Post reveals that a report on Hawke’s Bay sawmill sites contaminated with arsenic and PCP was kept secret for three years by timber company Carter Holt Harvey.

“Meanwhile Baybuzz’s Tom Belford tells me that his Official Information Request to the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council requesting the location of known contaminated sites in Hawke’s Bay has been denied”, said Green Party Tukituki candidate Quentin Duthie.

Last month the Government released a long-overdue report to the Green Party – requested many years ago – showing that the level of contamination at sawmill sites, including in Hawke’s Bay, was three times
previous estimates.

Unfortunately, the Ministry failed to disclose the site locations and continues to refuse to release them.

Mr Duthie continued: “This secrecy around New Zealand’s dangerous toxic sites unnecessarily puts the public at risk.”

“We need a national public register of contaminated sites so there is transparency.”

“Without that knowledge, parents cannot prevent their children playing on sites contaminated by toxins, some of which are cancer-causing.”

“We have a situation where industry, Councils and Government are all withholding essential information, and in the process they endanger community health and prevent New Zealanders from knowing whether the section they wish to buy, rent, or play on is dangerous.”

“It is likely that some land-owners, tenants and members of the public are unaware that their land is contaminated with some of the most poisonous toxins in the world.”

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman has said that there are thousands of contaminated sites around the country, and many of them are undocumented.

Mr Duthie concluded: “This issue just illustrates that the change we need is to get Greens into Government.”

Photo of one of NZ's worst contaminated sites at Mapua (Ministry for the Environment)