State of rivers not a political football

State of rivers not a political football

Thursday 9 June, 2016

By Jamie Falloon

The state of our rivers should never be treated as a political football.

Yet in the past week, we’ve had two blatantly orchestrated political announcements that do.

One statement wanted dairy cow numbers reduced by 80 per cent. If this happened it would mean relocating about four million cows.

I think the SPCA would be pretty overwhelmed tackling this challenge.

As opinion trended on social media and talkback radio it was promoted as being a serious option, with dairy farmers in the firing line, and the suggestion of a conspiracy between Federated Farmers, Fonterra and the Government.

This was an absurd proposition. It is like saying New Zealand has too many people and we need to reduce our population by 50 per cent because of the negative impact on the environment.

If anyone had bothered Googling, they would have seen the ‘opinion maker’ has a history of aggressive sound bytes, which express a disturbing and often moronic hatred of dairy farmers and Federated Farmers.

Meanwhile, the Green Party dropped the second political football perhaps deflecting attention away from their very public "marriage of convenience" to Labour.

It all looks cosy on the outside and could even be construed as an advancement in MMP politics. But look closer, underneath the bonnet at the "pre-nup" and things might not be so rosy.

This is akin to being married at first sight. Especially when everyone knows that one of the wedding party has the hots for another man, who typically plays hard to get!

You know it will end in tears, before the wedding vowels, if it means running the country; the Green Party will be jilted at the altar, again for Labour’s old ex.

So enough of the wedding gossip, this latest political announcement was about a plan to clean up ten "polluted" rivers in New Zealand of which the Ruamahanga was one.

Once again politics jumps in. Only one of the rivers suggested around the country is entirely in an urban area. It is a fact that urban rivers and streams are the most degraded in the country.

But this is not good for votes, making Aucklanders’ spend billions of dollars cleaning up their streams.

No, it is much smarter to make others pay where you don’t have many votes to lose.

The worst thing about this announcement is it gives the impression that nothing is being done in the Ruamahanga and that as a community we don’t value it.

There has been considerable investment by both urban and rural landowners in getting on a pathway to improve the river. Of course it could happen faster, but someone always has to pay.

Farmers are doing their bit through fencing, effluent storage ponds and managing their land in a better way to reduce impacts.

All townships in the catchment are now either treating sewage on land where possible or have a plan to eliminate sewage from being tipped into the river and will be focusing on stormwater next.

So far, total committed investment between the two sectors in the Wairarapa would be around $150 million.

There is plenty more work to come and in a small, provincial economy this doesn’t just happen overnight.

My message to those using our rivers and farming industry as political footballs is to get the facts straight, focus on the positives and get people in behind a reasonable practicable course of action which will make a difference.

ends

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