Pure spin from Key on water quality
new-zealand-labour-party
Tue Jul 12 2011 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Pure spin from Key on water quality
Tuesday, 12 July 2011, 5:01 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party
Brendon
BURNS
Water Spokesperson
12 July 2011
MEDIA STATEMENT
Pure spin from Key on water quality
John Key is as slippery as an eel in trying to promote New Zealand’s fresh water as 100 per cent pure, says Labour’s Water spokesperson Brendon Burns.
“Mr Key was recently challenged by the BBC over claims that New Zealand’s water quality is ‘100 per cent pure’, to which his response was that the BBC’s source - Massey University scientist Mike Joy - was just one academic, and he could always find another with a counterview.
“Today John Key was floundering. He was challenged to respond to the views of Professor David Hamilton, president of the New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society, who says the Yale University research the Prime Minister uses to justify his “100 per cent pure” claim is out-dated and has no credibility.
Mr Key seems quite happy to accept the views of Professor Hamilton on the research he leads into the $90m cleaning-up of Rotorua Lakes which the Government is funding.
He had no answer to the fact that Professor Hamilton and Waikato University have unsuccessfully requested the data used by Yale but their own independent research suggests New Zealand is about the middle of the international water quality scale, not at number two, as the Prime Minister would have us believe.
“John Key is simply throwing up a smokescreen to cover up this Government’s abysmal performance on water quality. On one hand, the Government accepts intensification of dairy operations has had some impact on river quality, and promises more funding for the clean-up of our rivers and lakes.
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“On the other, his National Policy Statement on Freshwater only requires regional councils to adopt water quality standards by 2030 – and the Government has gutted the initial NPS which required strong action to combat the intensification of agriculture’s increasing impact on water quality. By 2030, our major rivers are likely to be polluted beyond the point of no return.
“The Government has no plan and is stalling progress. What happens when the next international journalist claims our ‘100 per cent pure’ position is just greenwash? Surely even John Key realises that even slippery eels need decent water quality to survive,” Brendon Burns said.
ENDS
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