Rachael Kelly/Stuff
Groundswell members Logan Evans, of Mandeville, Duncan Gardyne, of Waikaka, Bryce McKenzie of Pomahaka and Laurie Paterson of Waikaka. (file photo) The group organised a tractor protest on Gore s main street last year and hosted a public meeting at the Southern Field Days site earlier this year. It has also circulated a nationwide petition against the freshwater rules, which the group says are unworkable.’’ New rules around winter grazing, which were introduced as part of the freshwater rules, have been deferred by Environment Minister David Parker and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor until May 1 next year, to give farmers more time to develop, test and deploy new practices.
Monday, 19 April 2021, 9:42 am
A coalition of organisations and businesses are
collecting signatories to an
open letter urging Environment Minister David Parker to
introduce a comprehensive beverage container return
scheme.
Zero Waste Network spokesperson Marty Hoffart
says a container return scheme which excluded specific
beverage containers, such as glass bottles, would not work.
It has to be comprehensive to be effective.
“The
Government has invested 18 months of work into figuring out
how a container return scheme would work, but unfortunately
vested industry groups are pushing hard to exclude glass
from the scheme.”
“It would be bonkers not to
include glass in a container return scheme. Glass is a
Environment Southland has begun winter grazing monitoring flights across the province.
Southland farmers appear to be preparing well for winter grazing this year, and staff only have a few farms to follow up with after a monitoring flight last week, Environment Southland chief executive Rob Phillips says. “We have six paddocks to follow up by our land sustainability team and there are three direct compliance issues, which will be followed by directly by the compliance team. Not all of these were related to winter grazing,’’ Phillips said. Regional council staff, along with Dairy NZ and Beef + Lamb NZ representatives, carried out a helicopter flight last Thursday to observe the cultivation of forage crops intended for this year’s winter grazing.
Housing Minister Megan Woods said after talks with local councils, it was clear investment in critical but costly infrastructure - such as roads and pipes - was seriously lacking, and no one had been prepared to step in and fill the expensive gap.
That s why the multibillion-dollar fund is being introduced, she said, to boost infrastructure on Government-owned land and in areas where councils can demonstrate both housing need and willingness for momentum to increase new-builds.
But details are scarce. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development website has an A4 PDF document available to read. Dr Woods had to issue a correction in Parliament after saying there was a substantial body of work about it available online.