Editorial: Getting RMA settings right
OPINION: The Government has been seeking industry feedback on its proposed amendments to a range of Resource Management Act (RMA) national direction instruments.
OPINION: "The treaty is our past, present and future. It has shaped the country we have become, and the obligations it imposes on both sides will always be with us. However, we must aspire to go forward not as two sides, but together as New Zealanders because there is more than unites us than divides us."
That short excerpt from Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's full speech at Waitangi last week sums up the overall theme of the speech. And it seemed in tune with the way most Kiwis chose to celebrate Waitangi Day, coming together with friends, family, fellow concert goers, to have a classic Kiwi summer day and celebrate our way to life.
Contrast this with the media coverage of the day, and of the PM's speech: 'Luxon's outrageous speech', 'The spiders are coming - Kelvin David', 'I lift my gun, I let the shots do the talking - Pene Henare'. This negativity was delivered by the media with the usual lecturing and editorialising about how the Government was somehow being 'divisive'.
The evidence for this claim is thin, but the 'divisive' accusation has become a favourite for stoking the division. It won't be lost on people that those in the media hellbent on pushing this 'divisive' line - thereby silencing efforts to debate the Treaty - are the same ones who signed up for the $55m slush fund that required them to swear fealty to a particular view of the Treaty.
Luckily, the real world rarely resembles the view projected by the mainstream media; normal New Zealanders aren't at each other's throats, we're just getting on with it, together, and working to get the country back on its feet.
The challenges we face are real and exist across all sectors, not the least in farming and hort - where, again, the media claims of 'division' don't reflect the reality - where the majority are just getting on with it. Maybe it's time to turn off the 'divisive' news and focus on that.
Academic Dr Mike Joy and his employer, Victoria University of Wellington have apologised for his comments suggesting that dairy industry CEOs should be hanged for contributing towards nitrate poisoning of waterways.
Environment Southland's catchment improvement funding is once again available for innovative landowners in need of a boost to get their project going.
The team meeting at the Culverden Hotel was relaxed and open, despite being in the middle of calving when stress levels are at peak levels, especially in bitterly cold and wet conditions like today.
A comment by outspoken academic Dr Mike Joy suggesting that dairy industry leaders should be hanged for nitrate contamination of drinking/groundwater has enraged farmers.
OPINION: The phasing out of copper network from communications is understandable.
Driven by a lifelong passion for animals, Amy Toughey's journey from juggling three jobs with full-time study to working on cutting-edge dairy research trials shows what happens when hard work meets opportunity - and she's only just getting started.