During a recent question and answer exchange in Parliament, as if to epitomise what can only be described as theatre of the absurd, Green Party co-leader, Metiria Turei was moved to put it to the Minister for the Environment, Dr Nick Smith “you do know that fences do not prevent leachate from entering the waterways”.
Discussion and anger concerning the pollution of New Zealand’s fresh waterways continues to intensify, and rightly so.
Rejigit has previously published several blog articles about these matters;
http://www.rejigit.co.nz/vendor/article.php?uid=cy
http://www.rejigit.co.nz/vendor/article.php?uid=cv
http://www.rejigit.co.nz/vendor/article.php?uid=cp
http://www.rejigit.co.nz/vendor/article.php?uid=ce
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Almost every imaginable individual and organisation, all eminently qualified and appropriate to advise and comment on this ongoing and mounting travesty, have warned that the polluted state of our waterways is such that significant measures are required as a matter of crucial urgency.
In the April 29 issue of the Listener, an article by Diana Wichtel entitled “Beacon in the murk” is an interview with Stephen Sackur, the extraordinary, interview maestro of BBC HARDtalk fame. The article describes in part, Sackur’s May 2011 questioning of John Key with particular regard to New Zealand’s “100% Pure” slogan and how Sackur is of the view that New Zealand politicians including the Prime Minister aren’t challenged very much. Sackur goes on to suggest that if his 2011 HARDtalk Key interview is so memorable, it makes him wonder what the hell everybody else was asking the guy. Unfortunately this is but one of the many examples of what has become standard practice with the current government in as much as if anything untoward is taking place, simply front the Country and deny there is anything wrong.
Dr Smith is a skilled practitioner in this dark art of politics and it’s way overdue for his feet to held to the fire, particularly with regard to the state of our waterways.