28 February 2013

Salmon farm decision sets dangerous precedent

The New Zealand Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has run roughshod over local democracy by allowing four new salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds, said Green Party fisheries spokesperson Steffan Browning.

Mr Browning was responding to the final decision by the EPA Board of Inquiry to allow new salmon farms in areas of the Marlborough Sounds in which aquaculture was prohibited under the Marlborough District Council’s district plan.

“New Zealanders don’t want companies overruling their community plans and polluting their pristine recreational water space, but that’s what this decision does,” said Mr Browning.

“I’ve been told that the four salmon farms approved today could create the human effluent equivalent of 143,000 people.

“This decision sets a dangerous precedent that companies can apply to build marine farms anywhere on New Zealand’s coastline.

“Not even areas identified by communities as off limits for development are safe.”

Reference:
EPA decision: http://www.epa.govt.nz/Resource-management/king-salmon

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On Failures Of Care For Those With Mental Disabilities

Hard to imagine a more disturbing insight into the treatment of the vulnerable than the Health Ministry report on Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau. The Ministry has found that the country’s only kaupapa Maori intellectual disability residential care provider has been “seriously dysfunctional.”

The ministry says the business has failed to recruit and retain quality staff – and says the kaimahi (caregivers) that have been employed are seriously unsuitable for the job, lacking basic knowledge. But Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau doesn’t get all the blame. The report says there’s a significant gap under disability laws to ensure there’s oversight by qualified clinical professionals. More>>