The National led government has perhaps been the most arrogant when it comes to conserving our natural resources in New Zealand. Through ignorance and greed, they've managed to damage our ecology beyond measure in their relatively short political history.Unfortunately the National party simply doesn't care what environmentally conscious people think, not even during an election campaign.
That’s the conclusion one has to reach after the Minister of Conservation, Maggie Barry, decided she didn’t need to concern herself about a petition by New Zealander's who are unhappy with a plan to build a water pipeline directly through a Kiwi bird sanctuary.
Today, Newshub reported:
People power saves rare kiwi from water pipeline - for now
Plans to build a pipeline through a kiwi sanctuary have seemingly halted in the face of growing public backlash.
More than 18,000 people signed a petition opposing the pipeline to take fresh water that originates in Mount Aspiring National Park, pipe it out to ships 6km offshore and export it in bulk.
Expecting voters to agree to the damage of high value land that is now a sanctuary where some of the rarest Kiwi birds live just so that our precious water resource can be exported overseas in bulk for free will be a bridge too far for many voters.
Conservation Minister Maggie Barry turned down the invitation to accept the petition.
She says Okuru Enterprises would need to reapply to the Department of Conservation for permission to lay the pipeline, since the kiwi sanctuary had been established after the company's historical consent application.
Barry says she wrote to Okuru Enterprises three months ago informing them of this and is yet to receive an application.
She says the 18,534 signatures on the petition won't affect whether she allows the application.
"It isn't going to sway me one way or another as a judicial decision-maker around this process if I do in fact make a decision on it."
Bad form Maggie Barry. A member presenting a petition doesn’t need to agree with its contents, and really it’s up to the Speaker to judge whether a petition is acceptable or not.
Maggie Barry refusing to accept the Say no to a pipeline through a Kiwi sanctuary by Mount Aspiring National Park petition makes her look very childish. By failing to listen to people's concerns, the former garden show host has clearly displayed her unsuitability to remain as Conservation Minister
This is just one example of many that show the National led government has no concern whatsoever for our conservation estate, sanctuaries or the endangered species that live there, even when it involves the interruption and displacement of our national icon.
If you value our Kiwi bird, vote to protect its sanctuary this coming election. Vote to change the government.
