Category: Uncategorized
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NZ First Minister Shane Jones, wants regional councils gone.
In The Press, Christchurch 27 June, Dr Greg Severinsen, the Environmental Defence Society’s RMA Reform Director, acknowledges the need for reform, but to paraphrase him, warns of the proverbial throwing the baby out with the bath water. It highlights too, for me, the importance of voting. These two following paragraphs from the article, reinforce that…
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If it doesn’t sicken you already, perhaps the impact upon the hip pocket might be the straw?
If one can possibly ignore the horror of the starvation and bombing of a confined population in Gaza, which in my mind represents a genocide, along with the escalation of conflict with the attack upon Iran, there are in fact both direct and indirect consequences upon the people of Canterbury Waitaha from the Israel regime…
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Annual Plan deliberations 27 May 2025
Today we deliberated on the 2025/26 Annual Plan. Thirteen Councillors in the room and two online. I have attempted to put the majority of the decisions requiring debate in. We started with Public Transport, where we supported the 2-zone fare structure commencing February 2026 and the trial of additional capacity on Route 86 Darfield to…
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EDS on the right side of history………(as usual)
This reinforces how disingenuous federated farmers commitment to the environment is. They deliberately used litigation to stall the plan change for a decade, in order to expand dairy farming throughout the basin. They were eventually called out by the environment court, but by that time they already had their infrastructure up and running and their…
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Saving the planet
The Editor In response to the article ‘The tiny charity saving the planet one court case at a time’ The Press 31 March. I want to acknowledge the Environmental Law Initiative (ELI) and the importance of the work they are carrying out. If you ever doubted that the doctrine of eternal growth and its associated…
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3/3/2025
I got the chance to discuss local politics over a cuppa at the Canterbury Workers Education Association today……….. The WEA recognise that democracy works best with open communication and so were continuing their series of afternoon teas with elected representatives. This was a chance to sit down in a small group setting, ask questions, and…
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Letter to the editor
In regards to the article “Anger over decision to exclude community from red zone committee” The Press. I am a little surprised to see the make-up of the committee given a model already exists for a similar project and has done so since the Ngai Tahu (Tutaepatu Lagoon Vesting Act) 1998. Te Kōhaka o…
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What we know about 2025
We are well into 2025, the last year of the current election trimester, with elections later this year. We have the first Council meeting of the year this upcoming week, after the Planning & Strategy and Regional Delivery Committee meeting during the past two weeks. The big project for this year was to be the…
Greg Byrnes 