28 January 2016

‘Stock in lake’ incident shows Govt is failing to protect our waterways

Allowing stock to traipse through waterways on its watch is evidence the National Government has failed to protect our rivers and lakes from pollution, the Green Party said today.

“The Government pays lip service to the environment and here’s the evidence that backs that up,” said Green Party water spokesperson Catherine Delahunty.

“By shrugging its shoulders at these incidents, the Government is letting polluters off the hook.

“The Government’s solutions to our water quality crisis have been feeble, and now 62 per cent of our monitored waterways are too dirty to swim in.

“The much-vaunted buy-back programme announced in 2014 to retire land next to waterways was just another election promise, to placate polluters and let them carry on with business as usual.

“Clean-up programmes are the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff - the Government should be looking at preventing pollution in the first place.

“We support the Land and Water Forum’s call for stock to be excluded from all waterways, and we want to see the Government direct councils to strengthen their rules around this.

“It’s not OK for local authorities or the Government to shrug their shoulders at the problem when our rivers are in crisis,” said Ms Delahunty.

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