Mokihinui dam consent granted

Pretty predictable. My partner Frank decided not to waste his evening so he stayed home to stitch up his trousers...We got the usual politician-speak about cuddling kakapos and releasing kiwis. As if we were there to hear that stuff. Eventually she did get round to the elephant in the living room (mining, water, hydro dams, land tenure reviews etc.) but she also encouraged a multitude of topics to be raised e.g MTBing on the Heaphy - this approach served to disperse some potential focus on the more contentious issues. However Aarn Tate of Aarn Packs delivered a short impassioned speech how he was not happy with the way things were going in the conservation estate. Despite the jeering from our host who was probably one of the few supporters of our honorable guest demanding what his question actually was, I was very glad to hear what Aarn had to say and felt he was speaking on behalf of quite a few of us. Well, you can fool some of the people some of the time I guess. That must have been how that particular bunch got elected...She was good on stats and saying stuff like "how do we work out the best compromises?". She is not from an outdoor background but is actually from a farming background. You know... that industry that enjoys subsidised diesel, subsidised water and getting away with polluting the water and land by not sticking to the bylaws. God help us.

Thanks for the feedback, and that's a shame. I have to admit she hasn't inspired me with much confidence just yet. I guess time will tell for sure. I did a quick search of the Bluegreens website at http://www.bluegreens.org.nz/ As well as being a National Party subsidiary that forms the focus of that party's environmental group, it describes itself very clearly on its front page as "the National Party’s advisory group on environmental issues". Despite ongoing media releases and vision statements, 2 words that *never* appear *anywhere* on the website (according to Google) are: * 'mining': http://www.google.com/search?q=mining+site%3Abluegreens.org.nz (no results) * 'mokihinui': http://www.google.com/search?q=mokihinui+site%3Abluegreens.org.nz I do wonder if the Bluegreens actually don't care about these issues in the slightest (irrespective of what they might think), or if they're just being shushed. Maybe they just have a useless website. Plenty of photos of people digging holes to plant trees, though.

And it goes on... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/department-of-conservation/news/article.cfm?o_id=258&objectid=10647161 "Meridian Energy and the Department of Conservation (DOC) have filed a joint memorandum in the Environment Court requesting the appeals relating to the Mokihinui hydro proposal be put on hold." [--snip--] "Both parties agree that issues relating to land access need to be addressed before we can take this process further through the court process." "Taking the time to carefully work through these issues before advancing to the Environment Court is the most logical and cost effective way of simplifying a complicated process for all concerned," said Mr Lusk. I have a theory that there's more to this.

Following the Mokihinui story further, Claire Browning has obtained, under the Official Information Act, and released some weird communications between Meridian and DoC from earlier this year over the Mokihinui. http://pundit.co.nz/content/oia-uncovers-2nd-quango-trying-to-evade-the-act "DOC papers released to me, under the OIA, show Meridian deleting key email to pre-empt its release, and slowing down DOC decision-making.

Apparently a "silent majority" support the plans. I wonder how he arrived at that? "Oh, the ones all the polls missed out on. They are there, it's just their are unwilling to have their voice heard like the greenies". Sounds like the sort of thing conspiracy theorists go on about. This is a real pity. :(