This does not look good…
Green MP Eugenie Sage accused of ‘rubber-stamping’ land sales to foreigners
New figures reveal the land information minister and Green MP has approved nearly every application to cross her desk over nine months, rejecting just 30 hectares out of almost 60,000 hectares.Former Green MP Sue Bradford is warning the news will stir up more disquiet among the party’s supporters after an earlier backlash over Ms Sage’s decision to allow a Chinese water bottling giant to expand.
“Her role is meaningless. The party’s role is meaningless,” Ms Bradford told RNZ.
…the Minister explains that the majority of this land was Mount White Station and that it was purchased by a permanent resident who was here just long enough to jump through the bullshit loop holes we hold up as safeguards, except this time the Czech buyer couldn’t bother staying long enough to pretend to be a NZer.
The other reason sales have been rubber stamped is because the billion trees needing planting need to be sold off shore, but that’s a ridiculous position to defend because there are other options like using and investing in Māori communal land for tree planting rather than hocking off land to over seas forestry interests.
Both examples, the sale of high country stations to pretend international residents and preferring foreign forestry interests to indigenous solutions are ones the Greens could champion and go out on a limb for, instead the Minister acquiesces without any appreciation of the neoliberal rot these polices are built upon.
This is the time to be activist with your Ministries, what the hell was the point of going into Government as a Green Minister if it is merely to rubber stamp flawed free market regulations?
Yes there is a review in 2020, but it’s 2018 now and this woeful lack of vision aligns with that appalling Chinese water bottling fiasco.
This could have been a rallying point for the Greens.
ES has also been behind the approval for a landfill for all of Auckland’s waste in the Dome Valley, when the current landfill in Dairy Flat goes out of commission – off one of the most dangerous stretches of highway in NZ, and near the river that supplies water to Wellsford. This woman should be in the National Party. Greens have totally lost it, this began after Sue Bradford left, MT proved to be a very bad choice over her.
FFS
Stupid or impotent, the result is the same for NZ, a loss of sovereign assets.
Wait until you see the anger in Chch first hand when they are drinking chlorinated water and looking at water restrictions while Chinese breach their consents (already have)and pump billions of litres from under the city.
Fucking madness.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/108567271/waimea-dam-proposal-largest-investment-involving-crown
Here we go, government money sees the green light for more irrigation.
Ratepayers will be lumped with ongoing cost, further intensification/pollution occurs and a few farmers get richer.
Where is the Green Party?
Why on eRth would you vote for them?
Well who are we to vote for?
It seems that since the universal uptake of Rogernomics, voting is aspirational, in other words meaningless
Move to Australia, it’s a bigger country and they still believe in National sovereignty and will take longer for the corrupt politicians to wreck.
Maybe the revolution will happen and NZ might still have something left to salvage.
Maybe we will get lucky and have a new Micky Savage or Jim Anderson enter the NZ political scene. Sadly the longer we have the current technocrats on any side of the house running the show, the more damage is done.
Francesa, there was a party at the last election with very ‘green evidence based policies’ – TOP. when I went through the policies they were more green than what the Greens have shown themselves to be in government!
Well, this is a frustrating “gap” that is not being closed soon enough for anyone’s happiness.
However, in other areas the Greens actually have made great progress in oil and gas, zero carbon, welfare, housing input, working on agricultural changes and Maori issues, sovereign money, etc.
Greens aren’t perfect and never will be – it’s a political party working within a neoliberal framework until such time as “the People'” understand that’s a major change waiting to happen.
My view -They are the best we’ve got and deserve support for what they are doingg not constant hammering when they’re not managing to achieve enough fast enough
We see these appalling decisions day after day, not only, but mostly, from the Greens. I am totally perplexed that NZealanders dont make it impossible to sell land in this country. I.e all the land is owned by all New Zealanders and would be administered by the government of the day.
Occupation of the land would be in the form of long 99 year leases. That stops all this shonky business. True, it isnt going to happen tomorrow but a start can be made on the areas which are uninsurable due to rising sea levels.
Native reforestation is a priority action to mitigate climatic changes and to support ecological stability. Reforestation – not plantation forestry. What is the concept of the new owner for use of such large piece of land?
The use of water must be a part of a strategic approach to water management in the country, and the affected region, and the water cycle in the regional environment. The key phrase is “integrated water resources management”, based upon a cost-benefit analysis that includes the potential shortage and pollution of the resource. If sold through the private sector, the price of water should consider these costs.
Land-fillings cannot be stopped on short notice, unfortunately, due to economic politics of previous governments and present consumption patterns of the population. But it has to be framed as part of a persuasive political strategy for waste management with visible short-term benefits and impact. This is a political task to be seen in a wider context of climate resilience.
There will be no climate resilience – and relevant Green Party politics – without strong strategic vision and approaches toward natural resources management that are well understood by the NZ citizen in its complexity, and taken up by communities and neighbourhoods.
For a Green Party in 2018, being in government would mean removing the established barriers and obstacles to achieve the vision. And doing this quickly.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X00000234
It is frustrating at the slow regulatory response to these issues .
However, My view is- they’re a political party so never going to be perfect. They’re also working in a capitalist framework until people accept their goals including sovereign money, UBI,etc and people/planet centred communities.
They have achieved and are working hard in many areas – oil and gas, zero carbon, welfare reform, maori affairs, etc. and I think they’re the most progressive we’ve got in govt so far. I’m going to support them with constructive criticism rather than hammering them when they get it wrong (as everyone does at times) Also work through NGO’s and activist groups to create change – we shouldn’t pin all our hopes on one group at any time.
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