Safe was calling on Environment Minister David Parker to ensure a process for illegal bird dumping was easily accessible to members of the public, Chambers said. “There are no clear instructions or resources available for members of the public to report or lay complaints about illegal dumping of ducks or animal cruelty during bird shooting season.” She thought it was unlikely the people responsible for the dumping would be caught or face any kind of punishment. “The reality is that this kind of behaviour will only stop when bird shooting is banned. Australia has already banned duck shooting in three states. New Zealand is long overdue for a ban on bird shooting.”
Twenty million trees part of wide-ranging Kaipara Harbour restoration project
3 May, 2021 06:00 AM
5 minutes to read
The Northern Wairoa River flows past Dargaville Photo / Susan Botting
Susan Botting is the Local Democracy Reporter for Northlandsusan.botting@northernadvocate.co.nz
More than 20 million trees and other natives will be planted around New Zealand s biggest harbour in the groundbreaking $200 million Kaipara Moana Remediation project.
Alan Wilcox, a senior manager for the Kaipara Moana Remediation interim management unit, said planting the 20 million trees was the foundation of a new intergenerational approach.
The first plantings are planned this month. They will be the start of New Zealand s biggest large-scale harbour restoration programme - across 6000sq km of land with more than 8000km of waterways.
The issue here is centralisation will not remove the bureaucracy, only reposition it to Wellington or Christchurch and take away our local voice. The downgrade of the Lumsden Maternity Centre is a prime example of this, where a decision was made by someone in Dunedin, removed from understanding what the needs were on the ground. Now, almost two years later, all we have seen is a whole lot of promises made and very little delivered. Our health system is already very centralised, as the Government has a high level of control, determining our District Health Board (DHB) funding, governance and so on.
Government releases Intensive Winter Grazing Module
27 Apr, 2021 08:45 PM
3 minutes to read
The Country
Extra monitoring and a range of practical support is being rolled out to help farmers achieve immediate improvements in intensive winter grazing practices, Agriculture Minister Damien O Connor has announced.
Intensive winter grazing is a farming practice where livestock, such as cattle and sheep, progressively graze areas planted with fodder crops.
It was widely acknowledged that, if done poorly or too extensively, the activity had serious negative effects on both animal welfare and the environment, particularly freshwater and estuary health.
The Ministry for Primary Industries, Ministry for the Environment, councils and industry representatives, developed an online tool to help improve practices to benefit freshwater quality and animal welfare, O Connor said.
Treasury claims Rio Tinto faces investor backlash amid frustration over Tiwai Point negotiations
22 Apr, 2021 08:46 PM
5 minutes to read
The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter in Southland. Photo / Mike Scott Treasury says Rio Tinto risks an investor backlash over its handling of its environmental obligations at Tiwai Point, likening the situation to the destruction of sacred Aboriginal sites in Western Australia that forced the chief executive of the global mining giant to quit.
Documents released under the Official Information Act reveal the frustrations of both Treasury and the Government as they tried in vain to pin down the owners of New Zealand s aluminium smelter to environmental obligations at Tiwai Point, which has operated as a smelter since 1970.