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Russel Norman - Source: Supplied -
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Q+A's panel of Paul Holmes, Dr Jon Johansson, Ella Henry and Michael Barnett discuss the interview with Don Nicolson and Russel Norman.
PAUL HOLMES Is water the answer to all of our prayers? Yes here's what Russel Norman said about the value of water to us, let's just remind ourselves.
Russel Norman: "Or do we try to compete on the basis of a brand of integrity like Peter Townsend CEO of the Chamber of Commerce in Canterbury has been saying, in which case we have good animal welfare, we have good food safety, good environmental performance, and then that's the basis on which we compete New Zealand products in the world, and that's how we make money without trashing our environment."
PAUL And of course water's already very valuable I spose in tourist receipts and as Russel Norman says in terms of exports, what do you make of our water policies. Are we late out of the gate?
JON JOHANSSON - Political Analyst
Yeah we're late out of the gate I mean I think one of the
fundamental problems is how we think about it from a government
level, so we don't think of it as perhaps our most strategic
resource in this century. So if you look at the number of
ministries that have some implication with water, so across
government there's about you know six to ten different ministries
associated with water, we don't have a Minister of natural
resources, and then likewise vertically between central government,
local and regional, again there's no great coordination and so we
start out with this hotchpotch and we can see from these reports
that our brand truly is at threat because of the declining water
quality in both city and country.
ELLA HENRY - Former Greenpeace Director
Absolutely, I couldn't agree more. I mean I'm still uneasy about
the commodification and profiteering of natural resources, that's
always gonna be a rocky road that you have to negotiate,
JON Well who owns it Ella?
ELLA Who owns it exactly, I mean to me it's Nga Atua, but there are policies, there are policies like every stand alone house in this country should be subsidised to have a tank, all our black water and grey water should come off our rooves, but of course because we charge water rates by what we flush that throws a spanner in the work of that equation. I mean we need permeable paving, the water should be able to get back in the earth because there's only so much water on the planet, it hasn't changed in millions of years, and if we pollute it, we endanger our future.
MICHAEL BARNETT - Auckland Chamber of
Commerce
Basically before I comment on that, I'm going to comment on
Russel's thing there that the farmers of New Zealand are out of New
Zealand sailing around the world.
PAUL One particular one, one farmer is sailing around the world in his boat.
MICHAEL And of course what they're really doing is providing a backup plea for the two million dollar Greenpeace protest boats, but anyway. I think that what New Zealand has come to do over the last little while is understand the consequences. If we have a look at 2009 you know the big issue for the start of our recession was the drought, right, so it's the economic value, you know we deprive people of jobs, opportunity exports and so on, and it's not just the farmers, you know you can have a drought by not having access to water because of pollution and so on, that can be as much of a community issue as it is a farming issue, so I think Jon the same as you're saying, a whole of government approach on this, I think a whole of New Zealand approach to this, just because we've got it and we've got it in abundance in parts we shouldn't waste it we should be looking now to save.
PAUL Fair to say though isn't it, the government is steering a pretty nice middle road at the moment, I mean Nick Smith virtually side swiped the McKenzie Country development in a very neat way it has to be said, but at the same time John Key has said in his statement of intent, parliamentary statement, but he's determined that Canterbury will have water, he said he'll remove the roadblocks, so they do seem prepared to tackle some of the big concerns.
ELLA We're not though confronting what I usually call mid term inertia, I mean the government seems to be paralysed by so many issues, that everything is at a wait and see mode on water.
JON Well water is hugely complex right, and because it's town versus country, Maori potentially versus Pakeha, conservationists versus farmers, but you know what's worrying in that latest report Paul was that you know you have a core of like about 15% of our farmers you know God bless the rest of them right, that are doing good practices but 15% that just won't be told how to run their farms.
PAUL Serious offending, that's right. Just very quickly who owns water in New Zealand by the way?
ELLA Nga Atua of course because of the cycle, it comes down it goes into the ocean, it goes back up through you know&
PAUL Can we see any case or claim coming towards the Waitangi Tribunal?
JON There's already been cases.
ELLA Watch this space.
PAUL Alright the week ahead what are we going to be looking ahead to this week Michael Barnett?
MICHAEL Look I thought about this and I really couldn't think of anything, so having watched the programme earlier on, I thought to myself that what we will see is Air New Zealand announce a crèche area on all the plains, it'll be glassed in, it'll keep people quiet, so it'll go back to the old adage of you know children being able to be seen but not heard.
JON Big moves policy announcements from government to reclaim the agenda, I think we'll see this week, but the big action is over in the US and health care on Monday.
