Heavy machinery opening the Wairoa River mouth on a previous occasion. Photo / Hawke's Bay Regional Council
OPINION
Wairoa Mayor Craig Little commented on TV last week that there should be a government inquiry into the actions of Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) delaying the opening of the Wairoa River mouth (something that has been happening for years).
That process is far too costly and too slow. My opinion is that the Government should stand down the HBRC CEO and top brass responsible for holding off on getting the local contractor to open up the river bar, and move in a group of commissioners.
The contractor has always had his hands tied and been held up many times on when to move on opening the river mouth. In this case, a bulldozer and two diggers were written off, causing a significant loss of income.
The contractor has far more local knowledge and valued experience than any muppets sitting at a desk or driving around in vehicles.
The costs: another 116 homes flooded, the lime orchard that has never flooded before has lost a brand new packhouse where eight permanent staff were working... the list goes on.
In my opinion, MPs Nimon and Kirkpatrick should talk to Wairoa District Council about my suggestion, speak with Little and the contractor, and report back to Wellington.
Bring in the commissioners. Any government inquiry just allows departments to cover up and nothing is gained.
Merv Goodley
It always strikes me as humorous that those who identify as progressive and champion all the woke causes that blight society today are resoundingly against everything that has seen Western civilisation develop to where it is.
These people are anti-progress, anti-freedom of speech, anti-women’s rights, anti-sovereign protection, etc. They pursue their causes with the vigour and ignorance of those who participated in the Salem witch trials. Anyone with a slightly contradictory view is labelled racist, misogynist or many other labels I don’t care to mention. They use labels to shut down debate, simply because these people have no argument to offer other than their ignorance.
The latest to fall into this trap are Forest & Bird. They should be renamed “constantly finding ways not to do anything”. They are at the forefront of the anti-progress league in this country and have been for many years.
Their latest gripe is over the fast-track legislation. The irony is their supporters, who no doubt are climate change protesters, should in fact support the fast-track bill if they truly care about the climate. Development of wind and solar farms should be right up their alley. The current consent processes add years to the development time of these installations, meanwhile these climate activists continue to bleat about emissions whilst stopping developments to reduce them.
Sadly, most media continue to pedal these narrow ideologies, which only serve to muddy the waters at the expense of fact and truth.
Iain Boyle
The National-led coalition Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill proposes to reverse the former Labour Government’s ban on offshore oil and gas exploration.
Oil and gas produce CO2, the most abundant greenhouse gas, which is now at its highest atmospheric level in 16 million years.
Recently, we have been offered a way out by capturing carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon capture and storage (CCS) refers to a collection of technologies that can help combat climate change. Storage hopes are pipe dreams, I say.
Carbon capture is nothing new. Nature has done it. The CO2 emissions that it is suggested we capture and store belong to the fossil fuels captured and stored by nature countless millions of years ago.
Fossil fuels formed over millions of years from the carbon-rich remains of animals and plants, as they decomposed and were compressed and heated underground – a process taking many millions of years.
Hungry for its energy, we humans began tapping into this source 300 years ago. Although now well aware of the damage we cause, we wish to continue its use – dreaming up ways to make the problem disappear.
The only way out is to get to zero carbon. Despite the climate jargon of “net zero carbon”, I mean zero carbon: no greenhouse gas emissions. Zilch. Nothing.
We can’t survive as a species if we continue emitting greenhouse gases like we do. We need to get off fossil fuels as soon as possible.
Please understand, the worsening of climate change that we are experiencing now results from our past excesses. Today’s emissions will be experienced tomorrow. Prepare for a worsening climate.
Bob Hughes
Grey St has been degraded from an important, efficient, iconic Gisborne thoroughfare to some kind of Paddy’s Alley – a place now to be avoided.
A long-standing bus route has been altered because the drivers refuse to use the new, silly, skinny, unsafe traffic lanes.
How does a tiny minority of head-in-the-clouds types get to turn Grey St inside out?
As our rates lurch ever upwards, it’s galling to see them frittered away on poorly thought out, amateurish, dumb projects that have a seriously detrimental impact on the majority. If it ain’t broke, then break it seems to be the guiding principle.
When our summer visitors return home with their stories of the monstrosity that is Grey St now, we’ll be a national laughing stock.
E. Matthews