Te Tai Tokerau candidate: Godfrey Rudolph - Green Party

Green Party candidate for Te Tai Tokerau, Godfrey Rudolph.

By Godfrey Rudolph

Ngāpuhi nui tonu mai i Tamaki ki Te Rerenga Wairua.

I am grateful for my Hokianga up bringing which has entrenched the Ngāpuhi warrior spirit within me.

Te TaiTokerau I will give you my heart, soul and mind and one hundy plus in fighting for the north.

Our people in Te TaiTokerau are drinking paru water in Omanaia, families in Pipiwai are falling crook through inhaling dust from nearby dusty roads.

I will not take a step back while traditional pipi beds in the Hokianga Harbour remain polluted.

If you want action to clean up our water, climate change, or to protect the environment from pollution, mining and deep-sea drilling, the Green Party will prioritise these issues.

Fresh water is a common good and the use of this resource should benefit the wider community.

Those who are using water in Te TaiTokerau for commercial use are not paying a fair price for it.

These commercial industries are causing stress on our finite freshwater resource from over use.

Introducing a commercial price for water should require irrigators and bottling companies to bear the true cost of their business.

The Green party will put an immediate 10 percent litre levy on the sale and export of bottled water, to be applied at the point of manufacture.

Revenue from levy will be distributed to local councils and mana whenua on a 50/50 basis. There is an expectation on councils to use this revenue to clean up waterways and to protect water.

The Green party would place an interim ban on all new resource consents for water bottling until a charge on all commercial uses of water is developed.

I'm proud the Green Party acknowledges Māori customary rights and responsibilities over water under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Party vote Green and choose who you know will best represent Te TaiTokerau. Nāku noa Godfrey Rudolph.