Rural Issues

The Green Party is welcoming the debate opened by a NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development report which calls on the Government to implement a water trading system.

But the party is warning there are potential "fish hooks" in the scheme.

Green Party Co-Leader Russel Norman MP has challenged Horowhenua Mayor Brendan Duffy to a public debate in Levin over the District Council’s waste management practices.

"In local news media, Mr Duffy has called me ‘ill-informed’ and ‘completely out of order’ for raising the issue of a threat of sewage discharge into Lake Horowhenua," Dr Norman says.

The next Government needs to increase instant fines possible under Resource Management Act regulations for serious polluters of rivers and lakes, Green Party Co-Leader Russel Norman says.

Otago Regional Council must stop protecting names of persistent polluters if it is serious about the problem of worsening river quality in the region, Green Party Co-Leader Russel Norman says.

Reports in the 82,000-circulation Rural News newspaper that agricultural polluters gained control of the Government’s Water Programme of Action should be a cause of concern for all other New Zealanders, says Green Party Co-Leader Russel Norman.

The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council appears to be all talk when it comes to making the Tukituki River anything other than an insipid agricultural drain, says Green Party Co-Leader Russel Norman.

The New Zealand genetic engineering lobby group Life Sciences Network has shown its true colours by fighting against both open information and protection for non-GE growers, says Greens Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons.