13 August 2014

Green Party celebrates MOU win on contaminated sites

The Green Party is celebrating the announcement of a national register of contaminated sites today, and $2.5 million to start cleaning two sites up.

The Green Party and the National Party agreed to include toxic site management work in their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2011. Today the Government has announced funding for two sites to be cleaned up, and a prioritised list of ten sites with issues.

“This national register is a big step forward, and it’s great that the Government is using robust criteria following input from the Green Party,” said Green Party toxics spokesperson Catherine Delahunty.

“New Zealanders will be pleased to see progress on the identification and cleaning up of toxic sites. The Green Party is proud of the role we have played in working with the Government to make this happen.

“It’s as a result of the MoU that there is a National Register of contaminated sites. New Zealanders love their country and have a right to know where contaminated sites are.

“The involvement of local communities in these clean-up projects is vital.

“We’re pleased that the national register has been established. We’re also working with the Government and Local Government New Zealand on ensuring greater transparency and consistency for the regional registers,” said Ms Delahunty.

“This an example of the Green Party’s proven leadership, working with others where there is common ground to achieve good green change,” said Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman.

The Tui Mine remediation project – which was MoU - recently won the Arthur Mead Award, presented by the Auckland branch of the Institute of Professional Engineers New Zealand.

“The recent award for the Tui Mine clean-up’s shows that toxic site clean-ups can be done, and can be done well,” said Ms Delahunty.

For more information:
Minister’s announcement including list of sites: http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/initiative-prioritise-contaminated-sites-remediation

ENDS

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