Painted Apple Moth Community Advisory Group
Every time the Minister of Agriculture feels threatened by revelations about the poor conduct of the painted apple moth
eradication programme he raises unsubstantiated allegations against those who are doing their best to protect the public
and most particularly the people who are suffering from the effects of the spray.
The latest spur for these attacks has been the increasing interest from outside New Zealand in the government¹s aerial
spray programme. ³The scale of this operation is completely unprecedented,² says Community Advisory Group Chair, Kubi
Witten-Hannah. ³No where else in the world has a government exposed an urban population to this level of pesticide
spraying.²
>From the beginning of aerial spraying Aer Aqua has been reluctant to adequately provide for those suffering from the
spray. On one occasion the wife of a man suffering from serious asthma was advised by Aer Aqua to seek psychiatric help
for her husband. Only the most persistent of sufferers have been able to get assistance of any sort let alone
evacuation.
Evacuation usually means a 4:00 am phone call and a booking at the cheapest motel that can be found. I visited several
families of evacuees at a Newmarket motel sandwiched between Great South Road and the railway with the Southern Motorway
a short distance further. The units were too small to comfortably house families and there was no secure play area for
children. A recent news item featured a spray victim taking refuge in a tent. She was not sent there by Aer Aqua but it
was all she could afford after a parsimonious Ministry of Agriculture decided to change the terms of her evacuation
without seeking medical advice.
Mr Sutton has repeated earlier assertions about physical threats to PAM operation staff. Such threats to safety would be
anathema to anti-spray campaigners. The police clearly do not take the assertions seriously since neither I nor, to the
best of my knowledge, any other anti-spray campaigner, have been interviewed about these allegations. The new
allegations about unsolicited approaches to users of MAF health services are bizarre since for them to be credible it
would require MAF or Aer Aqua to be making their details of those who contacted them public.
³If Mr Sutton wishes to lash out with such wild and unsubstantiated allegations he should be prepared to name names,²
says Mr Witten-Hannah. At the moment Mr Sutton appears to be desperately trying to undermine the anti-spray campaign
without any evidence whatsoever. ³He would be better giving his attention to working towards safe eradication methods
for dealing with the painted apple moth and looking after the victims of his aerial spray operation,² Mr Witten-Hannah
added.
Kubi Witten-Hannah
Chairman Painted Apple Moth Community Advisory Group