Buzz from the Beehive: Parker talks rubbish (and how to recycle more of it)

There has been just one ministerial announcement since Point of Order last reported on the Buzz from the Beehive.  It came from Environment Minister David Parker, who said the Government is taking steps to improve recycling at home “and on the go” and is inviting citizens to have their say.

The press statement highlighted

• Improved kerbside recycling so New Zealanders can recycle the same materials all around the country and have access to a food scraps bin at kerbside.
• A scheme that incentivises people to return their empty drink containers for recycling.
• Separation of businesses’ food scraps from general waste to reduce greenhouse gasses and put the scraps to positive uses.

The statement noted that every year New Zealand generates more than 17 million tonnes of waste and sends almost 13 million tonnes of that to landfills.

The High Court finds fault with the Waitangi Tribunal (and a breach of The Treaty) while Jackson is congratulating it

Our Beehive bulletin

While Maori Development Minister Willie Jackson was addressing members of the Waitangi Tribunal,  the High Court was setting aside a tribunal decision to return $800m in state-owned land to an iwi because it had failed to follow tikanga Māori and breached the Treaty

Good grief!

The tribunal breached “the Treaty”?

Apparently so.

According to Newsroom:

Crucially, Justice Francis Cooke declared the tribunal had been in breach of the Treaty of Waitangi and not followed tikanga when it decided lands transferred to state-owned enterprises or in Crown forests in the central North Island should be returned to the Ngāti Kahungunu iwi.

The disputed tribunal ruling on the $800m of public lands accordingly has been overturned (although the judgement may be appealed).

Jackson’s speech to the tribunal members, telling them what a splendid job they were doing and giving them an idea of the future work that lies in store for them, was posted on the Beehive website along with –

O’Connor falls foul of farm folk over border rules – maybe he will find favour with new pugging rules

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Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, the subject of critical headlines in the rural press after saying no special accommodation will be made for overseas agriculture contractor workers to help fill critical jobs, perhaps will be regarded kindlier today.  Perhaps.

He has announced that Cabinet this week agreed to make some adjustments to regulations within the new National Environmental Standards for Freshwater to make them clearer.

“It became apparent that some of the regulations within the Freshwater standards – including ones around winter grazing – need to be adjusted, so we’ve done that,” Damien O’Connor said.

The regulations in question – governing pugging depths around fixed water troughs and gateways – weren’t practical, he acknowledges.

“So we have made some adjustments to make them more realistic”.

The amendments to be gazetted today will

Sage slaps six products on a “harmful” list for regulatory treatment to keep them (but how?) from becoming waste

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What happens to the Resource Management Act, after its great ungainly bulk  has been committed to the trash basket, is something worth considering in the context of the Government’s commitment to reducing waste.

That commitment was translated yesterday into a declaration that the Government is stepping up action to deal with environmentally harmful products – including plastic packaging, tyres and e-waste – before they become waste.

As part of the wider plan to reduce the amount of rubbish ending up in landfills, Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage announced six products are to be declared ‘priority products’ for the establishment of regulated product stewardship schemes under the Waste Minimisation Act. The products are:

• Plastic packaging
• Tyres
• Electrical and electronic products (e-waste)
• Agrichemicals and their containers
• Refrigerants
• Farm plastics.