Andrew Dickens: Are we sticking by clean green NZ?

On Friday I interviewed a representative of oyster farmers in the Mahurangi area who were outraged at a wastewater dump by Watercare that had poisoned their oysters. 

They have to close for 28 days. One farmer has to dump 80,000 oysters. That’s not good for business or their cashflow. 

As the interview went on I found out that this is not an isolated incident.  It’s already happened 39 times before this year.  And even worse Watercare has the right to do a dump like this 200 times every year. 

I was flabbergasted. That seems like an awful lot of dumping.

Then in the weekend I got a call from a local MP.  She told me Watercare basically wrote their own consent.  

They needed to involve public consultation yet all they did was drop some leaflets at the Warkworth library. 

She's raised the issue with the mayor, the man who wants to make Auckland a global city, and Mr Fix it doesn't seem at all interested in fixing it.

And now they dump the regions wastewater into the Mahurangi River and they’re allowed to do that 200 times a year. 

It’s killing the river. It’s destroying the oyster business. It’s decimated commercial fishing in the area. 

It’s a symptom of intensification in the area. It’s a symptom of the infrastructure being unable to cope with the new demand. 

And it’s a symptom of the Council not having enough money to fix the problem and no desire to help the affected businesses and to rescue a wrecked river. 

Honestly, I’d rather swim in the Thames or the Seine than swim in the Mahurangi in rural North Auckland. 

The issue has been swept under the carpet by Watercare and the authorities and it’s frankly just not good enough. Day by day clean green New Zealand is becoming a myth and a lie we like to tell. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So in the drivetime show ran about six pm Friday,
I interviewed representative of oyster farmers in the Mahorangi area
who were outraged at a wastewater dump by Watercare that
had poisoned all the oysters. They have to close because
of this dump. They have to close for twenty eight days,
close down their business. One farmers had to dump eighty
thousand oysters. That is not good for business, that's not

(00:20):
good for their cash flow. And as the interview went on,
I found out that this is not an isolated incident.
In fact, it's happened wait for this, thirty nine times
this year. And even worse, apparently Watercare has the right
to do a dump like this two hundred times every year.
I was flabbergasted. That's a lot of dumping into a river,

(00:41):
of a lot of wastewater that's killing the oysters in
the mullets. And then on the weekend I actually got
a personal call from a local MP and she told
me the Watercare basically wrote their own consent, they needed
to involve public consultation. Yet all they did was drop
some leaflets at the walk With Library, so nobody knew
this was happening. She raised the issue with the mare
the man who wants to make Auckland a global city,

(01:02):
and mister fix It didn't seem at all interested in
fixing it. And so now they dump the region's waste
water into the Maharanngi River and they're allowed to do
that two hundred times a year. It's killing the river,
it's destroying the oyster business. It's desibated commercial fishing in
the area. So it's a bit of a symptom of
intensification because Walkwith's going off. It's a symptom of the

(01:23):
infrastructure being unable to cope with the new demand. We
build the houses, we don't make the infrastructure. And it's
a symptom of a council not having enough money to
fix the problem and not having enough desire to help
the effective businesses and not wanting to rescue a wrecked river.
And honestly, I'd rather go and swim in the River
Thames in London or the sand in Paris than swim

(01:43):
in the Maharrangi in rural North Auckland. And isn't that
a shame? This issue has been swept under the carpet
by water Care and the authorities and it's frankly just
not good enough because day by day, clean green functioning
New Zealand is becoming a myth and a lie we
all like to tell. For more from Early Edition with

(02:06):
Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks it Be from
five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio