A Room Full of Typing Monkeys

It was rather amusing to watch Bomber beat himself raw about DPF getting his very own Herald column a few weeks ago. Bomber was incensed and obviously had to check himself before he turned into the hulk and went completely berserk on us.

He does raise a serious issue though, that is becoming more and more problematic; the right wing is trying to take over our airwaves.

You might have noticed that National has been delivering a dishonest argument concerning Farmers effluent runoff that is polluting our waterways. Three years after a national inquiry proposed sweeping changes to help clean up our water, pollutants and toxic waste is still pouring into our rivers like there’s no tomorrow.

Federated Farmers has been vehemently lobbying Environment Minister Nick Smith to not adopt the policy, saying its own voluntary and "innovative" measures are helping clean New Zealand’s waterways. What a load of Tutae!

With the Manawatu amongst the most polluted River’s in the world, the Government’s delay in implementing measures just so that a few Farmers can maximize their profits is disgusting! They prefer to reside in hyperbole and rhetoric instead of ensuring we have clean water in the future.

At present, regional councils manage waterways under the Resource Management Act, but most are complacent at enforcing the rules. Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said the policy change would ensure councils had to act to improve water quality and reduce pollution levels:

 "Pollutants, especially effluent from dairy farms, and erosion from stock are choking our rivers with silt, algae, and toxins. The policy sought to reduce over-allocation and over-contamination of water, but had been kicked to touch by Dr Smith while polluting industries hoped it would go away,” Dr Norman said.

A similar story is being told over in Australia. The Federation of Australian Science and Technological Societies announced that they will be asking MPs and senators to make sure the climate change debate does not harm the vital contribution research is making to the nation's future.

They’re angry that misleading claims about climate science are spilling over into attacks on the credibility of scientific research in general. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said yesterday he would not be available to meet with the delegation of scientists:

"Look, I've got a pretty busy schedule today. But the fact of the matter is that we're not arguing about climate change, we're arguing about the best way to deal with it," he told ABC Radio.

The noisy disinformation campaign by climate denialists is given far to much leeway to continue a debate that they lost years ago. When the stakes are so high, their delaying tactics that are so readily accepted by our Ministers could cost millions of lives.

Now we have that same inaction and rhetoric concerning Christchurch. But worst still is National’s use of a natural disaster to give themselves more powers.

National went to great lengths to gain extraordinary legal powers when it comes to running the Christchurch earthquake recovery operation.

Many of these powers extend across the whole of New Zealand. The Canterbury democratically elected organization Environment Canterbury, was abolished and replaced by government appointees, namely Big Ger.

The Quake Recovery Minister can override existing law, giving Big Ger Canterbury's crown unopposed until 2016. Gerry is evasive when questioned about these additional powers that have not led to any progression in Christchurch’s recovery, leaving many concerned citizens to become even more disheartened.

My disquiet is founded on stories that pervade New Zealand's biased media. For all intents and purposes they’ve been bribed by the National Party to provide a slanted opinion. The partiality is blatantly obvious when you read publications such as the Herald and Listener. If you have the time to wade through all their fluff, what you’ll find is an ineffectual argument to protect the status quo. Believe you me, it ain’t worth protecting.