Quote of the Week

“The failure of the allocation, regulatory and market system over the past 30 years has resulted in large water volumes being held by only a few businesses in Central Hawke’s Bay."

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Bay Buzz, CHB's "Heart-Breaking" Truths - March 3rd 2021

“Retiring a handful of intensive dairy units on the Ruataniwha Plains could …go a long way in resolving water security issues in Central Hawkes Bay”

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Hawke's Bay Today -  November 11th 2021

“Water in New Zealand is … like a gold rush on the Klondike – first person out stakes a claim and has it,” … there is no management of the purpose to which it is put … there needs to be some major changes in the way our water is managed and allocated”

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Bay Buzz, Yes, It's an Election Year,  March 31st 2022

“...now, seven years later, it is even more evident that we need to be saving water in that aquifer (Ruataniwha), not allocating/depleting more of it."

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Bay Buzz , Hoping for a Water Fairy, March 31st 2022

“The Mana of the river and Mana Whenua suffer due to a legacy of poor management, mainly over-abstraction of groundwater and illegal diversion of the river”

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Published in HB Today, March 28th  2022

“The Waimea scheme is now the most expensive in the country … the only beneficiaries are the consultants, the dam builders and the money lenders.  It is an expensive lesson to learn and sounds a warning to other proposed water storage projects”

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Published in Farmers Weekly, April 18th  2022

“(A)ccess to water consents is already skewed to a small number of water users … (a) sustainable future for the catchment is reliant on diversity of land use, geographical spread of activities, and reducing intensity of water volumes used.”

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CHB District Council submission on Tranche 2 Water Permits - March 23rd 2022

“Time to put the lid on the lolly jar” – too much water is being taken. Ngāti Kahungunu “want hard environmental and cultural limits and targets, solid bottom lines, with hands-on management of land use and activities to avoid pollution, rather than mitigation and costly schemes. We don’t have that.”

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Bay Buzz, Environmental Advocacy - Policy Matters,  May 15th 2022

“The more inputs you put into the system in order to get productivity, actually, the more it undermines the health of the total system – that includes the health of the pasture, the environment, the stock and the soil microbiology.  When we get out of the way and let nature do its thing, we suddenly discover there is a greater plan that we haven’t allowed to express itself”

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Future Farming Trust, Quote from video: Kamp Farms Show Regenerative Dairy Farming Benefits, May 19th  2022

“The average dairy stocking rate for New Zealand in 2017-18 was 2.8 cows per hectares and for Canterbury 3.4 cows per hectare.  This stocking rate is high compared to the rate of about one dairy cow per hectare mandated by the European Union (EU) to protect freshwater."

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Australasian Journal of Environmental Management: The Grey Water Footprint of Milk Due to Nitrate Leaching from Dairy Cows in Canterbury,  May 17th  2022

“I agree with the wide-held community view that not one more drop should be allocated from this already over-allocated water resource (Ruataniwha aquifer)”

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Hawke's Bay Today - February 19th 2022

“The purpose is to plant the whenua and see how to use water better – the opportunity to diversify land use is the biggest opportunity I see – being able to diversify into horticulture gives us the ability to grow crops for our whānau and to get to a commercial scale ... which is going to be utilised to keep this as a sustainable option … we have to be more resilient.

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Quote from Kaipara Kickstart website video, Feb 14th 2022

“I’ve always said that if nitrates were red, the rivers would run red and there would be an outcry because then people would see it.”

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Quote from “New Zealand’s Troubled Waters”, published online by ABC”s Foreign Correspondent, March  16th 2021

“Central Hawkes Bay needs to focus on nature-based solutions instead (of promoting the Ruataniwha dam V.2) – doing things like restoring wetlands, giving rivers more room to move, restoring forest in our hills and essentially finding ways to work within the environmental limits of the region."

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Quote from ‘Dams, Delays and Defiance’, front page story published by Hawkes Bay Today, August 20th 2022

“The environmental risks (of the Labour government’s proposed law change allowing Fonterra to loosen capital requirements for its farmer-shareholders) lie in the potential … to increase overall on-farm profitability, thus incentivising an increase to the national dairy herd size. A larger dairy herd would increase greenhouse gas emissions and put more pressure on freshwater resources.”

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Quote from ‘Fonterra restructure law risks pushing up emissions and diminishing freshwater quality, environment commissioner warns’, story written by Charlie Mitchell, published by Stuff, September 15 2022

“Going down the regen (regenerative farming) path is partly to simplify the system by cutting costs.  But it’s also being prepared if we can no longer use synthetic inputs.  I want to be ahead of the game and know how to farm without those inputs.”

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Quote from Farmers Weekly (12/8/2022) p. 10

As long as we think we are separate and treat nature as a resource to exploit, then we are doomed.   But humans have not always lived like this.  And many indigenous cultures still don’t. So I think it is important to look to them for an older, more resilient model … food, water and energy security are basic human needs and rights.  There is no way they should be controlled by market forces.

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Quote from Bay Buzz story ‘To Decolonise’, by David Trubridge (26/9/2022)

“So far, we’re not moving fast enough (on climate change) and the latest “pragmatic approach” proposed by PM Jacinda Ardern (i.e. He Waka Eke Noa) kicked the tough herd-cutting calls out into another electoral term with a probably less sympathetic Government.  It won’t fool the planet and it shouldn’t fool the rest of us.”

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Quote from ‘We’re still bargaining when we should already be accepting’, published on ‘The Kāka’ blog, by Bernard Hickey (12/10/2022)

“CONSERVE WATER.   As the heat ramps up and we all reach for the hose, sprinkler and tap this will put additional pressure on the rivers and aquifers.   But if we are careful with our water, there’ll be enough for everyone.

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Quote from CHB District Council flyer, distributed 8 December 2022

In response to radio interviewer question, “do you believe climate change is real, and happening?” 

 

Hoggard: “I’m sorta’ thinking now, ‘probably’ … we’re neva’ gunna’ know until about about 50 to 100 years”

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Radio NZ Morning Report, Federated Farmers Still Opposed to Agriculture Pricing Scheme,  December 22nd 2022

“I hear climate events being misleadingly called “one-in-100-year” storms, “one-in-500-year” floods, as if once you’ve had one you are safe for the next 99 or 499 years.  But that’s a misnomer.”

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Hawke's Bay Today, “Hawke’s Bay Walks Feet First into a new Climate Change Reality”, March 18th 2023

“Humanity is waging war on nature. This is suicidal. Nature always strikes back – and it is already doing so with growing force and fury.”

 

Quote from: Two Warnings about Future Storms and “the War on Nature”, story written by Tom Belford (Editor Bay Buzz), published online March 15 2023.

“You, as a food buyer, have the distinct privilege of proactively participating in shaping the world your children will inherit”

 

Quote from: Changing Paradigms I Regenerative Agriculture: a Solution to our Global Crisis?, Podcast (23:13 mins), published online e May 10 2021.

“The number one impact on water quality is way too much fertiliser, way too many cattle ...as long as we ignore the cause nothing is going to change”

 

Quote from NZ’s lakes and rivers in ‘appalling’ state, new Govt. report paints bleak picture as scientist accuses Labour of broken promises, Story by Michael Neilson (NZ Herald), published online April 12 2023.

“We are, and have always been, at the mercy of nature, but I think we used to live in accordance with and with more respect for those natural laws.”

 

Quote from: Nature has Spoken, but who is listening? Opinion piece published in Bay Buzz online, May 7 2023.

“Mining is coming back as well … if there is a mineral, if there is a mining opportunity and it's impeded by a blind frog, goodbye, Freddy.”

 

Quote from: Shane Jones gone 'full Trump', declared 'war on nature' with mining comments, conservation group says.  Story published in Newshub online, December 13 2023

“Power in politics belongs to those who turn up … When faced with the kind of blatant resource and power grab that only money can buy, successful resistance lies in the power of regular people.”

 

Quote from:  Green Party ‘State of the Planet speeches, 2024’. Posted by Chlöe Swarbrick and Marama Davidson, May 19, 2024

“There’s nothing “tough” about a government using its numbers in Parliament to bulldoze aside the public’s social and environmental concerns. That’s being “tough” only in the sense of saying “tough shit” to what the public thinks about it.”

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Comment on Chris Bishop’s (Minister for Infrastructure, National) public defence of the Fast Track Legislation; “we are a government that does not shy away from those tough decisions”.

 

Quote from: The Coalition’s Fast-tracked Speed Dates With Property Developers, story written by Gordon Campbell (editor, Werewolf), published online October 7 2024.