Hi guys. This month I want to revisit the duck pond story from a couple of months ago. I cannot quite get my head around this story ,yes story. I am sure I relayed it as per spoken word, yet I got it so wrong. I immediately edited it, correcting the mistake when my wife corrected me which was only minutes after I posted it. But to no avail. I had my cousy bro do a search and boot job on our computer a week or 2 ago. He found one suspect app had access to it..
This story, for a story it became was actually quite humorous in that the effluent pond contractor was supposed to be up on the small hill some way from the pond doing the pakeha version of a Maori war dance , shirt off, lots of chest slapping singing support for the manager as he confronted 6 or so strapping great Maori chaps all decked out in tats and dreadlocks. I got your back, I got your back. This white mans land all the crap you would expect from the Ku Klux Clan. Unbelievable. What was the motive? Well I fell for it. Normally am very careful and only print what can be verified . Be very careful now.
A while ago I reported on Horizons Regional Councils defence of the councils implementation of the One Plan in the Environment court. Fish and Game of course won the day, as I said they would. I have just reread a exert from the High Court decision On Discharges and Nutrient limits in which Judge Ko’s is critical of the environment court (para 20-22) for allowing Horizons to jump ship for the want of a simple interpretation. This is what has lead to this mess. Incidentally Horizons as I understand it have so far ignored the Recent Environment Court decision reinforcing the original decision. As a consequence of that Decision I believe, plus others, Govt of the day tightened up the guidelines for Judicial Conduct, making it mandatory for Judges to quantify their or the courts decision. See > Courts of NZ < March 2013. Test for partiality. Court of Appeal, Muir v CIR 2007 NZCA 334 @[62]. I sat through the Environment Court appeal Horizons Regional Council v Fed Farmers and Property Rights. The Judge told the appellants on the day . Sorry guys. That is despite the Minister of Conservations own ministerial interpretation of the Act. Kate Wilkinson said in her submission as Minister supporting Horizons, Horizons have assumed the roles and functions of the District Councils. No deliberation. When Property Rights in NZ inc appealed to the High Court , Justice Ko,s took Regional Council thus the Environment court to cleaners. ON the day We won. BUT 8 weeks later however it is now a different story. But Ko,s decision sang a different tune in the appeal Discharges and Nutrient limits. as above. These guys are all over the place. Who is pulling the Judicial decision makers strings. I believe it is the Ministry of Justice and in particular the office of Treaty Settlements. For as the then Minister for Local Govt Rodney Hide said in his speech to the Local Govt Conference in Wellington way back in July 2010. The financial cap for Treaty settlements has been breached and now Local Govt is up for grabs.
This leads me to the settlement process for my old neck of the woods. Ruapehu. There is a real scrap going on between the Uneku umbrella covering the Iwi of the middle reaches of the Whanganui river and Ngati Rangi who Uneku state are late comers to the Ohakune District. The Crown has recognized Ngati Rangi as the Tangata Whenua of the area cutting Uneku out. They have apparently done the deal with Ngati Rangi and that is that. Now this is going to be interesting. I read Ngati Rangi,s submissions to the District Councils planning process in which they consistently demanded economic growth. I also have a copy of their Environmental Strategic Plan. Yes written by Horizons Regional Council. And on whose behest. Will my view. It can only be by the Ministry of Justice or its lacky the Office of Treaty Settlements. This document identifies Ngati Rangi as being the new decision maker for the use and development of the Natural and Physical. Yes they will control all. It will be according to their worldly view. My view is that once the process for this settlement is over and signed we will see what? .Either all will continue as normal or Horizons One Plan will be implemented as per the Environment Court decision. My info is that it will capture all land/land use from the Hiwi’s to east of Taihape and a huge chunk of Tararua. Govt is waiting for this particular claim to be signed off. This is where the bulk of the 2 billion trees will? be planted. I put the ? mark because, the inside goss from Regional Council is that a plan change is in the mix. I have reported months ago on this. In the local paper, Horowhenua Chronical Friday January 12 pg 3. Kiwis like fresh water but not to swim in. Horizons Regional Council poll last December of 1100 people found that while a lot of us spend a lot of time around fresh water few swim in rivers or lakes. 62% said they had not ever swam in a river or lake. The Swim Fresh campaign boss said this is intriguing given considerable attention to swimmable water quality. And this is the one of the corner stone pillars of Horizons One Plan. Are Horizons accumulating science for the defence of a plan change. Is this the first glimpse of how Iwi are going to exert their worldly view? Late last year and I may have reported on this, Muriel Newman ran this story in her monthly paper. Customary Title Claims for every sq meter out to 200km of NZ coast line. 600 in all. Include air space, water, soil, bedrock and minerals. This was a result of the then National Govts disastrous Marine and Coastal Area act. The next Labour Govt legislated for Crown Ownership, with the 2004 Foreshore and Sea Bed Act, but leaving the door open for customary title claim’s. ?? The only politician at the last election to campaign for ,was Hone Harawira. Stolen was his call. Willy Jackson ,now the Labour Govts head of its Maori Caucus claims the country esp. Maori have moved on from the foreshore saga calling it waffle??. Is this why Maori voted with their feet and dumped the Maori Party? Jackson.”We will never ever do that stuff” Maori deserted the Maori Party for good reasons. The National party. Just what game are they playing? Successive Govts, labour included have deliberately sold NZ down the brown drain and into Maori activists hands. Are Maori awakening to the real world and taking on a responsible role and acting in the best interests of all people? I hope so. And I can speak from a position of authority having been asked to meet.and inform iwi leaders of the upper reaches of the Whanganui Catchment ,not all but most.Nothing missed them they knew of Johns and my meetings with Taurarua District council Mayor and CEO, to the meeting with Taurarua economic development. group. And yes we gave them it all. Our dodgy court decisions, dodgy District Council Planning process’s and how to protect or bring about change of , our report on Horizons activities in the Environment court. To much to list here. But pretty much all the dodgy stuff listed here in this blog since its inception. WE figured we had nothing to lose. Or should I say the District had nothing to lose.
So now we have the Labour Govt forcing Land Use Change on private land owners via the Emissions trading scheme. Some will say it was always going to come but. with Labour including Agriculture in the scheme and removing the cap on emissions from $25 a ton trees will be a inevitable out come. More so the higher the price goes. At $100 per tons all I see is financial strife. How on earth is the internal economy going to cope. The cost to consumer will be horrendous.In todays $. $8.8 billion. Farmers Weekly pg 122 January 2018. I had to give a small presentation to the Iwi group and I will repeat it for you next month. It details just how much land as a percentage of the farmed land per property is likely to be required. One wonders at all this madness. Why. It is the unprofitable sector of NZ Agriculture in terms of employment. There it is. Only last week 100 forestry workers in a Gisbourn company made redundant. While people eat carbon every day it has to paid for. Not only paid for but we have the Forest owners wanting a BIG tax break for planting encouragement, whilst welcoming Govt giving the Green light to the Crown Forestry agency to lead the charge for new plantings on private land. $14million per ann in financial support. Tax incentives and carbon value will be important tools. Who is the speculator in driving the carbon price. Would be a interesting exercise. Is it the Tax payer.
My sister is a greeny, we get on well, but. Watching something on TV over the weekend and Global warming was the topic. I commentented on a observation a family friend had made. Fact. She lives in Alaska. The Ice sheets are retreating up there. All these prehistoric villages are reappearing. My sister, oh isn’t that dreadful. my thought s were. What about the poor people frozen out in the first place.
This chap Doug Edmeades ,a soil scientist is a regular columnist for the NZ Farmer’s Weekly and a climate change sceptic, just as I am. Well we both agree. It has happened before, and we know it has happened before, plenty of scientific evidence to support, and there was bugger all humans, and no fossil fuels. Again in the same paper pg 20 January 29th 2018 letters. we have this hopefully brilliant chap with these facts.Name is Own Clements, from Northland. Thought u might be interested.
He established that his 2 500cc bikes produce 4 tons carbon, the house 10t, Ute traveling 30,000k, 12.5t, 10k for food and clothes, 1t IT, motor vehicle replace ment 7000t and 25k of manufactured goods.. Interest, insurance, holidays and so on =50t, plus a further 32t consumed by the boss and staff member being alive. His cows or cattle of 1000 head farting 60kg each x 21 =all up 1,368,500t of carbon. He has 50hec of native trees growing consisting of 2500 trees consuming one ton carbon each =2,500,000 t positive, minus 1,368,500t = a net 1,131,500t. So he is owed $22 a ton. He then adds up the carbon in the soil, averaging 5% organic matter, gets a bit complicated, claiming 58% of organic matter exists as carbon, talks about bulk densities of soil which is correct, A natural carbon cycle is what is found in healthy soils, and that 2-3 times the atmospheric carbon can be found in the soil. Working things back ward he assumes he uses or produces 1,400,000 t of carbon divided by 362 hec of grassland he only needs to have carbon stores of up to 4t per hec in soil capacity to off set use. Thus he is due a healthy return.
Think about how many ton of timber is sitting on 1 hec of land and think about how it will stay there in a severe storm event. if on steep hill country.
So my advice to Doug Edmeades is to stop debating with ICCP panel guys and if this chap is right, see them in court and do us all a favour.
On top of all this we still have Fish and Game slagging off farmers as dirty buggers, whilst continuing to happily swim in their own crap.
Mike