Garrick Tremain cartoon - book release

 

Quotable quote

 

"If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.” —Plato

NRC want iwi/hapu to control the coastal area

Submission to a Bill amending the Marine and Coastal Area Act have now closed. In its submission, the  Northland Regional Council (NRC) said it opposed the changes that would reaffirm Palriaments intention when the Act was passed in 2012, and prevent the courts "reinterpreted" purpose of the Act which substantially lowered the test for granting Customary Marine Title (CMT) from becoming a precedent for the hundreds of claims that have yet to be heard. 

They NRC says:

“The Bill would severely limit the CMT regime…as a result of the amended tests for exclusive use and occupation and the definition of substantial interruption – these in combination set an unfeasible bar for most applications to succeed.”

GREENS BACK ILLEGAL PROTEST

The Green Party is backing protest action to block a housing development on a 6.8 ha site in Kamo. A local hapu claims the site is wāhi tapu.

In February a commissioner granted the subdivision consent subject to conditions, including cultural and heritage requirements, They said, “The evidence was very clear and specific in relation to the Onoke Cone but not persuasive enough to prevent subdivision of this lower land for residential subdivision and occupation”.

That decision is now being appealed to the Environment Court. The grounds for the appeal include it is inconsistent with Maori values and does not take into account the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi because the Council did not provide translation services during the hearing.

Despite the appeal, Green Party leader, Clohe Swarbrick, is reported to have encouraged the hapu to occupy the site.

TRANSPOWER SAYS ‘SORRY’

Last week community leaders in Northland accepted a $1 million “goodwill” payment from Transpower in settlement for the disruption and financial loss the region suffered when a pylon collapsed in June.

The settlement comes after Transpower released a report saying what most people had already deduced. 

It found standard practice wasn't followed when maintenance work was carried out on the pylon's fastening plates. A maintenance worker removed nuts from three of the four legs, instead of one, causing the pylon to topple. The report found the team member wasn't adequately trained or adequately supervised. It stated removing multiple plates at once had occurred in earlier jobs in June 2024, without incident.

SILENCE FROM CR HARDING

When defending the low turnout of voting in Maori wards, WDC Cr Deb Harding recently claimed Maori participation in voting had been as low as 2%.

We have asked Cr Harding to provide evidence that this was the case, but no response to the various requests has been received. We assume Cr Harding won’t back up her claim because it’s untrue.  

This is true: Voter participation on the Māori roll was 23.8% (less than one in four). Half of those that identify as Māori choose to be on the general roll, which means only 1 in 8 Māori vote in Māori wards. So why do we have them?

FLUORIDATION - UPDATE

Two High Court cases have served to clarify the rights and responsibilities of the Crown and local councils on water fluoridation. The first was in September last year when the Court found the Director General of Health had breached the Bill of Rights Act by failing to consider whether the directions given to local authorities to fluoridate their water supply breached the rights of an individual to refuse medical treatment.

The second case in May dismissed a claim that councils who followed the directive to fluoridate were in breach of the Bill of Rights. The Court said councils had to follow the directive.

In other words, given the directive, the responsibility to abide by the Bill of Rights rests with the Ministry of Health, not a local council.

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