You are invited to join a 2 day workshop to build an

Organiponico Raised Bed Garden at a School near you!

Grant Steven and accomplices will be building Organiponico garden beds at the following schools during the next few weeks:

Oruaiti School, Monday 23 and Tuesday 24 March

Mangonui School, Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 March

Taipa School, Monday 6 and Tuesday 7 April

Peria School, Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 April

8 to 10 adult (16 years or over) participants are needed at each site to help with the constuction of these permanent, concrete-sided raised garden beds. This is a good opportunity to learn about the buiding of these highly productive, low maintenance gardens and share local knowledge of organic gardening techniques. The schools will be left with a highly useful tool for ongoing learning around growing, eating and sharing healthy food.

 If you have a day or two to spare, your help will be much appreciated. Either call the school or contact Soozee at the Environment Centre, 4081086, to register your interest.

Donations of organic compost or mulch will also be appreciated.

Each workshop kicks off at 9.30 in the morning and runs to about 3 pm. Bring your lunch, sunhat and your best local gardening stories!

This is an overview from the Green Party on the Resource Management Amendment Bill with guidelines on making a submission.

While the Environment Centre does not necessarily agree with or endorse the contents of this overview and guide, we feel it is important that there is public participation in the process and this is a clear introduction to the issues raised by the proposed amendments. Further analysis can be viewed at the Environmental Defence Society's website here.

RMA Bill - Key issues.pdf

Please note that the deadline for submissions is Friday 3rd April, which leaves very little time to have your say on this pivotal legislation which could potentially affect the public's ability to have a say in important environmental planning decisions.

Making a submission - a simple guide

Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill

Introduction
This Bill shifts the balance of the RMA away from environmental protection and community involvement, and towards unsustainable development. While its intention is to speed up the consent and planning processes, it does this in a way that makes it harder for New Zealanders to have their say and prevent damage to the environment. This is a big step backwards for both the sustainable management of our natural resources, and community participation in decisions that affect us.

Important details
You can have your say on the Bill by sending in a submission. It can be as short or long as you like, but being clear and concise is most effective. If long, include a summary at the beginning, number the paragraphs, and attach any supporting evidence as appendices. Your submission must be received by the Local Government and Environment Committee by Friday 3 April. You need to send two printed copies of your submission to:

Committee Secretariat
Local Government and Environment Committee
Parliament House
Wellington

If you need assistance with writing, copying or submitting, please contact us. If this is your first time making a submission to a select committee, please take the time to read this guide.

Submission format:
1. Give your name, address, phone number and email address
2. State that you WISH TO APPEAR before the select committee to speak to your submission - you can always decline later. If you are not in Wellington, request to be heard in a city nearest you.
3. Give an indication of who you are (e.g. landowner, business owner, community group member, etc). If you represent a group, outline its purpose and how many members it has.
4. Clearly state your OPPOSITION to the Bill.
5. Outline your key concerns about the Bill clearly and concisely using examples.

Key points we recommend you cover
Below are the six most important points that need to be made to the Bill. Details of other concerns, and guides from other organisations, will be available soon here. Please include as many as you can in your submission. Remember to put them in your own words, use examples from your experience, and be quite clear about what you want changed. First, state clearly that you OPPOSE the Bill. While it contains some amendments that are positive, the most significant amendments will be bad for the environment, bad for New Zealand's environmental reputation, and will reduce the democratic right to have a say. And thank you for caring enough about the environment and democracy to submit!

1. Security for costs

The Amendment
The Bill would allow the Environment Court to require a bond be paid before an appeal is heard. However, the Court already has the power to dismiss "frivolous and vexatious" objections in RMA 279, and 33 cases were struck out under 279(4) between 2006 & 2008.

Green Party view
This amendment will reduce participation of people with legitimate causes. A Court demand for a bond will prove an insurmountable cost barrier to many community groups. Developers will use the threat of security for costs to intimidate groups from appealing decisions.

Example
Because of security for costs requirement, a Wellington community group withdrew from appealing a landfill application on odour concerns. Those concerns later became a major problem.

Change Required
Delete clause 133

2. Reduction in public notification

The Amendment
Public participation is a principle of the RMA, hence consents are notified by default except where effects are minor. The Bill will make non-notification the norm.

Green Party view
The Bill will undermine the core principle of public participation despite the majority of consents not needing notification. By making non-notification the norm, fewer consents will be notified resulting in less public say and poorer decisions.

Example
Recently in New Plymouth a 90-apartment hotel (with a public bar) in a residential area was not publicly notified, and only stopped when the developer withdrew for financial reasons.

Change Required
Delete new section 94

3. Removal of Conservation Minister's right to say no

The Amendment
The Minister of Conservation has authority on behalf of the ‘owner' of the coast, the public, and therefore makes decisions on restricted activities like sewage discharges or marinas. The Bill removes this power, leaving Regional Councils as the sole decision-maker on coastal activities.

Green Party view
The public & conservation interest is represented by the Minister. Regional Councils should not have complete control over coastal activity, esp. contentious issues like sewage & marinas. Improvements are required to the process, but this amendment is not the answer.

Example
In Whangamata, the Minister decided to stop a marina in order to protect the public and conservation interest. Unfortunately, this decision was overturned and a native-forested estuary with endangered skinks will become a private marina.

Change Required
Delete clause 20

4. Restrictions on Appealing Plans

The Amendment
The Bill restricts the right to appeal a Council Plan decision to only points of law. Appeals on broader grounds can only be taken with the leave of the Environment Court.

Green Party view
This reduces public participation - a core principle of the RMA. A party cannot appeal on substantial matters without going through a Court hearing to get leave. Plans will be poorer because of it, and the environment will suffer. This may also clog the Court with leave applications, and slow down Council planning processes.

Example
This year, after an appeal against the Waitakere Council plan, the Environment Court reduced the number of subdivisions in the Waitakere Ranges. The appellants may have been prevented from taking this case under the amendments.

Change Required
Delete clauses 132 & 136

5. Removal of "non-complying" category

The Amendment
The RMA categorises planned activities. The Bill removes the ‘Non-complying' category, which is for activities that require a higher standard than control or discretion, but are not prohibited. After 3 years all ‘non-complying' activities not yet re-categorised will default to weaker protection.

Green Party view
Defaulting to discretionary lowers the environmental bar, but ‘prohibited' may be too harsh. Non-complying fills this gap. The change is unnecessary, and will result in onerous plan changes costing time and money. Removing it complicates rather than simplifies, so is contrary to the intention of the Act.

Example
The ‘non-complying' category was important in the Waikato Regional Plan to control nitrogen leaching farm activities. Some activities did not fit rules in other categories.

Change Required
Delete clauses 147 & 152

6. Remove public interest group power to join case

The Amendment
The Bill removes the ability of community groups representing the public interest to become party to an appeal if they were not a submitter.

Green Party view
Community groups have limited resources and sometimes struggle to submit on everything. At times they will have good grounds for joining an appeal by another group.

Example
Reputable public interest groups like Forest & Bird at times use this ability to join a case. It is important that their expertise and public interest is represented.

Change Required
Delete clause 131

4:00AM Friday Mar 13, 2009
By Kathy Marks

Turtles go to South America and back. Photo / AP

SYDNEY - Marine biologists believe they have found the answer to a long-standing question: what do endangered loggerhead turtles get up to after hatching on an Australian beach?

Apparently they hitch a lift on ocean currents from Queensland across the Pacific to South America and back again - a round trip of more than 19,000km.

The migratory behaviour of the juvenile turtles was confirmed by marine biologists at Queensland's James Cook University, who did genetic testing on loggerheads found stranded on the Australian coast and captured by long-line fishing vessels off Peru. Turtles at the two locations shared the same genetic background.

While loggerheads can be found around the world, scientists are particularly anxious to find out more about the Queensland population, which has declined by up to 80 per cent over the past decade. The latest study has helped fill in the lost years of the juveniles, whose early movements were a mystery until recently.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, tracks the turtles from the time they emerge from their nests on Mon Repos beach in southern Queensland.

First, baby turtles head for the water and swim out to sea, according to lead researcher Dr Michelle Boyle. Then, like the turtles in Finding Nemo, they hitch a ride south on the East Australian Current, taking them towards Sydney.

From there, the loggerheads travel east, passing Lord Howe Island, then the northern tip of New Zealand. They pick up the Humboldt Current, traversing the South Pacific to the coast of Peru and Chile. Later, they return to Queensland using the Southern Equatorial Current, researchers suggest.

In her paper, Boyle says many questions remain. It is unclear how long the odyssey takes and whether the loggerheads spend most of their time swimming or floating in with the currents.

While the population in eastern Australia has declined dramatically, its prospects look slightly better than a few years ago thanks to improved protection and the compulsory use of trawl nets designed to allow captured turtles to escape.

- INDEPENDENT

BUNDLES OF JOY: Baby kakapo.

A long-running campaign to save the kakapo has hit a milestone with the population now confirmed at over 100, Conservation Minister Tim Groser said today.

The kakapo population has for decades been only in double figures, but a Department of Conservation kakapo recovery team set up over 20 years ago has been working to grow it.

Mr Groser said the recovery team had been watching a handful of chicks hatch on Codfish Island, off Stewart Island, over the past few days.

Those developments meant the world population of kakapo was now 103 - more than double the number of kakapo alive a little over a decade ago.

Mr Groser said the recovery team was expecting a bumper breeding season this year, with hopes of more than 30 chicks hatching in coming weeks.

The recovery work has been carried out in partnership with Forest and Bird and NZ Aluminium Smelters, with over $3 million having been injected towards breeding programmes and predator proof sanctuaries.

- NZPA

When is a goldfish not a goldfish? When it's a nasty koi carp!

The Department of Conservation (DOC) is cranking up efforts around Northland to identify and get rid of these tough, persistent pest fish and it needs public help to do so.

Koi Carp

Previous appeals for sightings of koi carp have had a great result, says DOC spokesperson Amy MacDonald, with summer being a critical time to help contain fish spread.

"Koi carp spawn in spring and summer with females producing several hundred thousand eggs. The carp are very robust and can survive out of the water for a long time if kept moist, so we need to keep a constant watch for them."

The carp are pests because they cause water quality degradation by mixing up sediment on the bottom of waterways; eat aquatic plants, insects and small fish, making waterways unsuitable for native fish and trout and are easily accidentally transferred as adults or eggs into new waterways. As prolific breeders their numbers build rapidly so they can readily "take over" new sites.

"We're asking anyone who thinks they've seen koi carp to contact DOC immediately so we can confirm the report and then decide on management options," says Ms MacDonald. "Whatever we propose to do is agreed with landowners first. The idea is to help landowners with water quality on their own properties as well as look after freshwater ecosystems in general."

DOC has already eradicated two koi carp populations from ponds on private land at Waipu and Houhora and is working towards a goal of either eradicating or containing remaining populations.

Koi carp resemble large goldfish except for two pairs of barbels or feelers at the corners of their mouth. Their colours vary, often with irregular blotches of black, red, gold, orange or pearly white and they can grow to about 75cm. The barbels are an obvious feature, which distinguish the carp from other species such as goldfish.

The mostly live in sluggish, often weedy streams and around the shallow areas of lakes and lagoons.

"A simple phone call or e-mail is all it takes and we can get someone out to a property very promptly," Ms MacDonald says. "Action isn't always possible but it's important to know where the carp are for a comprehensive management perspective."

To report koi carp phone 09 4703300 or e-mail northland@doc.govt.nz, putting the words "pest fish" in the subject line.

For more information call Amy MacDonald on 09 4703342 or Sioux Campbell 09 4703355.

Transition Town Kaitaia is proud to present a film evening:

Alcohol can be a Gas!

See David Blume give a riveting presentation about alcohol fuel. The USA's first driver-owned co-op was organised as a result of this 2004 talk! This professionally filmed talk starts with the amazing history of alcohol (it was the first auto fuel), and covers a wide range of topics - exploding the myths told about alcohol, and giving a primer on how to produce it, and car conversion methods. This is all you'll need to blow the mind of that nay-saying know-it-all at your next party.

7pm, Friday 13th March
The Little Theatre
Kaitaia Community Centre

Gold coin donation appreciated and maybe something for the tea and coffee discussion afterwards.

For more information on the film, please click here.

Alcohol can be a GAS!

In response to the announcement that the Foreshore and Seabed Act (2004) will be reviewed, a consultation hui has been organised in te Hiku o Te Ika. The hui sets out to explain the process for the review and to have korero before the public discussion process starts. Hosted by the Maori Party and Iwi/Hapu of Te Hiku:

10am
Monday 9th March 09
Kaitaia Community Centre

The hikoi at Parliament.

Some background to the review:

The terms of reference and members of the Government's ministerial panel to review the Foreshore and Seabed Act have been announced by Attorney-General Christopher Finlayson (4th March 2009).

A review of the Foreshore and Seabed act was provided for in the Confidence and Supply Agreement between the National government and the Maori Party.

The Attorney-General worked closely with members of the Maori Party in setting the terms of reference for the review.

The terms set out the scope, timing, and consultation requirements of the review.

The three-person Ministerial panel will be chaired by former High Court judge and Waitangi Tribunal chair Justice Edward Taihakurei Durie. The other members are barrister Richard Boast, an Associate Professor at Victoria University specialising in property law and Maori legal issues, and Hana O'Regan, an educationalist specialising in Maori culture and identity (see attached biographies).

"The panel will consider the state of the law around Maori customary interests in the foreshore and seabed prior to the Court of Appeal's 2003 decision in Attorney-General v Ngati Apa," said Mr Finlyson. "It will also look at the options that were open to the government in deciding how it chose to respond to the court's decision."

The review will look at whether the Foreshore and Seabed Act as it stands adequately balances Maori customary interests and the rights and interests of all New Zealanders in using the beach.

If the panel is not satisfied it does, it will outline options on the most workable and efficient methods by which both customary and public interests in the foreshore and seabed area could be recognised and provided for.

"The panel expects to hold public meetings and hui around the country over the April-May period, and will also hear evidence from prominent commentators on the Act," said Mr Finlayson.

"Significantly, the panel will reconsider the submissions that were made to Parliament when the original Act was being passed," said Mr Finlayson.

"It will report to me by 30 June 2009. The Government expects to make a decision on the future of the Act by the end of the year."

Mr Finlayson said in the event that the review resulted in the Foreshore and Seabed Act being repealed, the government was committed to protecting the public's use of beaches.

The government is committed to the deed of settlement the Crown entered into with nga hapu o Ngati Porou under the Act, Mr Finlayson said. Negotiations with other groups under the Act have been put on hold until the review is finished.

Foreshore and Seabed Act Review - FAQs

1. What is being reviewed?

The Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 is being reviewed.

2. Why is the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 being reviewed?

The Government considers a review of the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 is important to:

• ascertain whether the Act adequately maintains and enhances mana whenua; and

• ensure both customary and public interest in the coastal marine area are recognised and provided for.

3. How did the review come about?

After the general election in November 2008, the National Party entered into a Relationship and Confidence and Supply Agreement with the Maori Party. In this agreement both parties agreed to initiate a review of the Act as a priority.

4. How were the parameters for the review set?

Ministers from both the National Party and Maori Party worked together to draft an agreed terms of reference for the review of the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004. A copy of the terms of reference is available at the Ministry of Justice website.

5. What do you mean by "terms of reference"?

The Terms of Reference describe the purpose and scope of the review in order to guide the work of the Ministerial Review Panel. The terms set out the parameters around scope, timing, and consultation requirements of the review.

6. How will the review work?

The Attorney-General has decided to establish a Ministerial review panel to look into the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004. Three people have been appointed to the panel. This panel will provide independent advice and options on the issues outlined in the terms of reference, in a report to the Attorney-General by 30 June 2009.

7. When was the Ministerial review panel established?

Cabinet approved membership of the Ministerial panel and the terms of reference in February.

8. Who is on the Ministerial review panel?

The Ministerial review panel consists of Justice Durie as the Chair and Richard Boast and Hana O'Regan as the members of the Panel. Biographies on the panel members are available on the Ministry of Justice website.

9. What powers does the Ministerial review panel have?

The Ministerial review panel does not have any statutory powers like a commission of inquiry. For example, the panel can not summon witnesses, demand production of evidence, cite for contempt and so forth. As such, the panel relies on the goodwill and co-operation of the public to attend and disclose information.

While the Panel will be providing the Government advice by way of a report, any policy decision with regards to the Act lies with the Government.

10. What will the Ministerial review panel provide advice on?

The Ministerial review panel is asked to provide independent advice on the terms of reference. Specifically they will report on:

a) the nature and extent of the mana whenua and public interests in the coastal marine area prior to the Court of Appeal decision in Attorney-General v Ngāti Apa

3 NZLR 643;

b) what options were available to the government to respond to the Court of Appeal's 2003 Attorney-General v Ngati Apa decision;

c) whether the Foreshore and Seabed Act effectively recognises and provides for customary or aboriginal title and public interests (including Maori, local government and business) in the coastal marine area and maintains and allows for the enhancement of mana whenua; and

d) if the Panel has reservations that the Foreshore and Seabed Act does not provide for the above, outline options on what could be the most workable and efficient methods by which both customary and public interests in the coastal marine area could be recognised and provided for; and in particular, how processes of recognising and providing for such interests could be streamlined.

11. Who is being consulted?

It is expected that the Ministerial review panel will consult with Maori groups, foreshore negotiating groups, key commentators on the Act, and the general public.

It will also consider submissions made to the Maori Affairs Select Committee in relation to the original Foreshore and Seabed Act.

12. What are the time frames?

Consultation, including hui, public meetings and oral submissions are expected to be held in April and May 2009. The Ministerial review panel will report to the Attorney-General by 30 June 2009.

13. How will I know when and where a hui and/or a public meeting is being held?

The Panel will make announcements about hui, public meetings and a submissions process in due course. This information will be available on the Ministry of Justice website.

14. What will happen once the Ministerial review panel has given its advice to the Attorney-General?

The Government will begin making policy decisions about the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 once it receives advice from the Ministerial review panel. This will be done by 31 December 2009.

15. What happens to agreements made under the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004?

The Government is committed to honouring the agreement reached under the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 with nga hapu of Ngati Porou in the East Coast region.

16. What happens to negotiations that the Crown had been engaged in under the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004?

The other foreshore and seabed negotiations are on hold until the review is completed. Groups that have been involved in negotiations with the Crown will have input into the review.

17. What happens if the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 is to be repealed?

In the event there is a repeal of the legislation, the Government will ensure that the interests and concerns of all New Zealanders are balanced in the costal marine area.

The Far North Environment Centre will be at the Kaitaia A & P Show this Saturday (7th March), sharing a marquee with Transition Towns, Kaitaia, Taitokerau Organic Producers and Far North Organic Growers.

There will be displays illustrating the Organiponico garden project in schools, Weedbusters at Tokerau Beach, the Organic Food Co-op, the proposed Community Garden in Kaitaia plus a range of information on sustainable living and the Sustainable Living Activation programme that promotes household sustainability.

Organiponico garden project in schools

If you would like to help by manning the stall and talking to the public, that would be great - or just come along, have a cuppa and biscuit in the munchie zone and share some inspiration!

Set up will be from 7am. Please contact Soozee if you can help with this (09 408 1086). The Show usually runs from 9am to about 3pm.

See you there!