Clean water is a simple issue

Yesterday, Stuff reported:

People need to understand that clean water is a complex issue, says Bill English

The prime minister says people have "high expectations" for clean waterways, but need to understand the complexity of the problem.

Bill English made the comments during a visit to meet constituents in Manawatu.

English said there was "quite high community expectations" for standards of waterways, but there were difficult long-term issues to be dealt with.

I really don’t accept Bill English's excuses. The issue of polluted waterways isn’t really that complex at all. If you pollute waterways they will be polluted. Simple!

The problems arise because there are so many polluters making vast amounts of money from environmental degradation and no real foresight or proper financial investment by the government. Certainly not enough to undo any of the damage the many decades of polluting our waterways has caused.

English said people also needed to be aware of the "size and complexity" of the task.

It’s about as complex as having less cows shitting in the water. Of course initiatives like proper fencing away from waterways can actually save farmers some cash. The loss of a cow worth $1500 in a waterway is equivalent to the cost of fencing approximately 650 metres of stream for instance.

However apart from a bit of farmer’s initiative and a small amount of token government and council funding, riparian planting isn’t anywhere near what it needs to be. So how complex exactly is planting some trees Bill English?

It is a topical issue for Manawatu, with Horizons Regional Council recently found to not be enforcing water quality regulations properly.

But English played down the recent Environment Court case. "I'm not surprised that regional councils run into some roadblocks. There are others round the country and most of them have found this pretty challenging."

English said he still had faith in councils to do their jobs. "It is important [regional councils] get the support."

The government throwing their hands up in the air and going "the issue is too complex" is just a cop-out. National passing the financial buck onto council's simply isn't going to work.

Unfortunately National has no intention of properly funding councils so they're able to address our polluted waterways. Likewise, councils have little interest in protecting the environment or enforcing the law because most councillors have vested interests in farming.

The sad truth of the matter is that while National is in power we will see little if any real change in terms of our polluted waterways. That’s because they’re the farmer’s party and won’t do anything to upset their core constituency.

So it’s not really a complex issue at all. If you want cleaner waterways that you can swim in without fear of getting sick, that you can go fishing in and actually catch some fish and that doesn’t scare our tourists away with green sludge and bad smells…don’t vote for National. It’s as simple as that.

4 degrees - Santos Frack Off!

Santos have announced they want 4 degrees of global warming!! That's the Mad Max scenario. In this video I take a look what 4 degrees would mean for Australia and our planet. SHARE and Like this video to tell Santos to FRACK OFF!

350 Aotearoa - Hero of the Week

We should all know by now that climate change is the most pressing issue the world is facing. Not only is increased severe weather patterns causing unprecedented flooding and droughts around the globe mean substantial disruptions to our way of life, the cost to our ecosystem and economy is also extensive and can no longer be ignored.

That’s why it’s so good to see grassroots activism confronting businesses that are still supporting the fossil fuel industry.

Yesterday, Stuff reported:

Protesters storm Dunedin bank and sing Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up

Dozens of climate change protesters stormed into a Dunedin bank and sung the Rick Astley classic Never Gonna Give You Up.

Friday's light hearted protest by 350 Aotearoa was in stark contrast to a similar protest a year ago, where people, including the elderly, were stopped from entering the George St ANZ branch.

This time about 30 protesters went into the branch and began singing the 80s song, in a move known as 'Rick-rolling'.

Peaceful protest is the way to go people. Therefore 350 Aotearoa has won this weeks Hero Award. Keep up the good work.

Strong & Unstable

In this video, UK News reporter Jonathan Pie rips the tories to shreds:

National's policy causing suicides

I've often wondered why an employer should be able to dismiss an employee within 90-days of employment without good reason? Allowing employers carte blanche to dismiss an employee willy-nilly is just asking for the system to be abused.

Today, The NZ Herald reported on one such case of abuse:

Boy's suicide prompted run for Parliament

By Isaac Davison

A long-serving primary school principal who never intended to enter politics says she changed her mind after an ex-student committed suicide.

Labour candidate Jan Tinetti, the principal of Merivale School in Tauranga, said the 20-year-old man had just been fired from a factory job.

"He was employed under the 90-day [trial] bill and lost that job on about day 88 or 89. He thought he'd brought shame on his whanau.

"That was the point that it hit me and I thought education is massively important, but it's not the whole story. And we need to be advocating for people into better lives. That's when I decided to stand."

This is a clear indication that National policy is causing social harm. The 90-Day fire at will law is obviously being abused by a number of deadbeat employers who appear to have no moral values at all. But does the National government give a damn? Apparently not!

Finding good workers is all about helping people to develop skills and allowing them to gain confidence in the job. With a 90-Day contract hanging over new employees heads and clear-cut cases of employers abusing the law, New Zealand cannot hope to increase production or efficiency, two areas which could do with a large amount of improvement.

Unfortunately National is ensuring through their destructive policies that a large sector of the potential work force never gets the opportunity for further on the job training let alone a career that would benefit not only employees and employers personally but society in general as well.

13.6% of youth are now unemployed thanks in part to archaic laws like the 90-Day bill. The National led Government have had nine years to come up with solutions but instead have just made things worse. That's a pretty good reason to vote Bill English and his cronies out this September.

The 90-Day bill should be scrapped along with the idiots who voted for it.

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