Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Letters: Not easy being green?

Whanganui Chronicle
12 Jul, 2020 05:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

The Green Party still backs "green" issues, writes former candidate John Milnes. Photo / Bevan Conley

The Green Party still backs "green" issues, writes former candidate John Milnes. Photo / Bevan Conley

I'm somewhat surprised by Rachel Stewart giving the Green Party (Chronicle, July 2) a hard time over their outwardly "moving away from their roots and becoming too urban".

As a member of the Greens for 18 years and candidate for three elections I have a fair idea of where the Greens are coming from and also why Rachel may be missing the point.

The charter of the Green Party is spelled out with these four principles: ecological wisdom, social responsibility, appropriate decision-making and non-violence.

This means to achieve a sustainable planet ecological wisdom will work if resources are shared equitably, as unlimited material growth is impossible, this requires decisions to be made at the appropriate level by those affected, and these decisions made with non-violent conflict resolution.

Any change to one of these principles and it affects all the others.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It has become obvious that many Green initiatives have been binned by NZ First because of, in my view, NZ First's lack of concern for environmental and climate change realities.

Or if it is concerned, satisfying its major donors like the fishing industry and its perceived supporters is more important than these real issues.

So Rachel, the Greens are very concerned about "green" issues but in concert with everything else that affects being "green". It is both hard and not hard being "green". [Abridged]

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

JOHN MILNES
Aramoho

FPP v STV

On a wet winter day, I decided to seek some entertainment by watching the last regional council meeting.

Discover more

Will this week's cold snap affect you?

13 Jul 05:00 AM

Referendums arouse interest from young Whanganui voters

22 Jul 05:00 PM

I was surprised and would like to ask publicly why councillor Nicola Patrick moved a motion to change the voting system from First Past the Post (FPP) to her personal view of Single Transferable Vote (STV) at the Horizons council meeting on Tuesday, June 23?

Not in terms of the merit of each system, but is she not responsible to represent the views of the general public, over her own personal views, at the meeting (able to be viewed online) she never mentioned once that a referendum was held at the last election on this issue in a binding poll with 10,608 voting no change to 2590 for change.

That's 75.60 per cent of the Whanganui public she did not represent.

It would appear considerable lobbying had taken place by councillor Patrick as the vote was a tie.

Had it succeeded Horizons and the ratepayers could have been up for significant costs through a Judicial Review as councillors must consider everything on its merits and not have pre-determined decisions. From my observation the only opinion given pro-STV but nothing for FPP.

The change of voting system would also add approximately $15,000 to $20,000 to the election cost paid for by the ratepayers.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

MURRAY HUGHES
Whanganui

Title Here
Click here to email us a letter.
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Seabed mining project sparks alarm over impact on South Taranaki fisheries

07 Jul 03:57 AM
Whanganui Chronicle

Multiple purchase offers for pilot academy

07 Jul 03:39 AM
Whanganui Chronicle

Police seek sightings of car linked to missing person

06 Jul 11:50 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Seabed mining project sparks alarm over impact on South Taranaki fisheries

Seabed mining project sparks alarm over impact on South Taranaki fisheries

07 Jul 03:57 AM

Jamie Newell fears silt pollution will damage precious reef ecosystems.

Multiple purchase offers for pilot academy

Multiple purchase offers for pilot academy

07 Jul 03:39 AM
Police seek sightings of car linked to missing person

Police seek sightings of car linked to missing person

06 Jul 11:50 PM
How a spray painter is mastering conflict resolution with NZ Army

How a spray painter is mastering conflict resolution with NZ Army

06 Jul 05:00 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP