{"id":1964,"date":"2016-11-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-23T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/new-zealand\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/"},"modified":"2024-07-12T14:58:49","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T02:58:49","slug":"nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/","title":{"rendered":"NZ taxpayers forced to fund dirty rivers, again"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand taxpayers are again being forced to prop up the Hurunui irrigation dams and will get dirty rivers and increasing rural debt in return, Greenpeace said today.<\/p>\n

It was responding to an announcement by the Government that it will be subsiding the Hurunui irrigation scheme in North Canterbury by $3.4 million.\u00a0 This comes on top of over a million of taxpayer dollars that have already been given to the scheme.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hurunui irrigation dams will take water from iconic local rivers to drive more industrial dairying and therefore more water pollution and more debt in our rural communities\u201c said Greenpeace Sustainable Agriculture campaigner Genevieve Toop.<\/p>\n

The assessment of environmental effects of the scheme assumed that the entire irrigated area would be used for dairying and the company’s own economic report confirmed that dairy will be the dominant land use. (1) (2)<\/p>\n

The Government has set aside $480 million of taxpayer dollars for irrigation schemes like the Hurunui dams.\u00a0 Earlier this year MPI came under fire for playing fast and loose with taxpayer money when it approved a funding application by Wairarapa dams. <\/p>\n

A Fish & Game-commissioned report found the application to be highly misleading and based on bad information including an inflated dairy payout.(3)<\/p>\n

\u201cIndustrial dairying is failing our rivers and it\u2019s failing dairy farmers whose debt has tripled in the last 13 years.\u00a0 It is irresponsible for the Government to be pushing and subsidising this broken model.\u201d said Toop<\/p>\n

She said the existing Opuha dam, also in the Canterbury region, has proven to be ineffective at dealing with drought.\u00a0 It dried up in 2015, leaving farmers who had converted and intensified off the back of it without any water. (4)<\/p>\n

Large-scale irrigation was not the answer to drought, said Toop. <\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to push water hungry industrial dairy farms into low rainfall regions ultimately decreases the resiliency of our farming sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of throwing money at these think big schemes the Government should instead be supporting farmers to transition from industrial dairying to ecological farming which looks after our land, our water and our rural communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

A petition<\/a> calling for an end to public subsidies for large-scale irrigation has attracted over 60,000 signatures.<\/p>\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Pg 6: https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/append-i-hwp-assessment-economic-effects-waitohi-storage.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

2. Pg.\u2019s 10 and 14: https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/append-i-hwp-assessment-economic-effects-waitohi-storage.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

3. http:\/\/www.stuff.co.nz\/business\/farming\/agribusiness\/84485582\/millions-of-tax-payer-dollars-spent-on-three-wairarapa-dams-based-on-suspect-figures<\/a><\/p>\n

4. http:\/\/www.stuff.co.nz\/business\/farming\/agribusiness\/64859521\/drought-means-big-trouble-for-kiwi-farmers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Zealand taxpayers are again being forced to prop up the Hurunui irrigation dams and will get dirty rivers and increasing rural debt in return, Greenpeace said today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[22],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-1964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-freshwater","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\nNZ taxpayers forced to fund dirty rivers, again<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NZ taxpayers forced to fund dirty rivers, again\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New Zealand taxpayers are again being forced to prop up the Hurunui irrigation dams and will get dirty rivers and increasing rural debt in return, Greenpeace said today.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Greenpeace Aotearoa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/greenpeace.nz\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-23T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-12T02:58:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2017\/08\/river-pollution-greenpeace-1120.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1097\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GreenpeaceNZ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@GreenpeaceNZ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/a58246c9e62a8d04103f0a1f5a4ab62f\"},\"headline\":\"NZ taxpayers forced to fund dirty rivers, again\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-23T12:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-12T02:58:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/\"},\"wordCount\":407,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2017\/08\/river-pollution-greenpeace-1120.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Freshwater\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Greenpeace\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/\",\"name\":\"NZ taxpayers forced to fund dirty rivers, again\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2017\/08\/river-pollution-greenpeace-1120.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-23T12:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-12T02:58:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/a58246c9e62a8d04103f0a1f5a4ab62f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2017\/08\/river-pollution-greenpeace-1120.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2017\/08\/river-pollution-greenpeace-1120.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1097,\"caption\":\"A turbulent, muddy river intersecting green fields on either side.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"NZ taxpayers forced to fund dirty rivers, again\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/\",\"name\":\"Greenpeace Aotearoa\",\"description\":\"Our mission is to ensure Earth\u2019s ability to nurture life in all its diversity.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/a58246c9e62a8d04103f0a1f5a4ab62f\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/92a4ffcb4a1c6076205104a37a3930fa28607751d6b1c627fcd41f91a4ed4da5?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/92a4ffcb4a1c6076205104a37a3930fa28607751d6b1c627fcd41f91a4ed4da5?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NZ taxpayers forced to fund dirty rivers, again","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"NZ taxpayers forced to fund dirty rivers, again","og_description":"New Zealand taxpayers are again being forced to prop up the Hurunui irrigation dams and will get dirty rivers and increasing rural debt in return, Greenpeace said today.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/","og_site_name":"Greenpeace Aotearoa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/greenpeace.nz","article_published_time":"2016-11-23T12:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-07-12T02:58:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1097,"url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2017\/08\/river-pollution-greenpeace-1120.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@GreenpeaceNZ","twitter_site":"@GreenpeaceNZ","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/a58246c9e62a8d04103f0a1f5a4ab62f"},"headline":"NZ taxpayers forced to fund dirty rivers, again","datePublished":"2016-11-23T12:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-12T02:58:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/"},"wordCount":407,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2017\/08\/river-pollution-greenpeace-1120.jpg","keywords":["Freshwater"],"articleSection":["Greenpeace"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/","name":"NZ taxpayers forced to fund dirty rivers, again","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2017\/08\/river-pollution-greenpeace-1120.jpg","datePublished":"2016-11-23T12:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-12T02:58:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/a58246c9e62a8d04103f0a1f5a4ab62f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2017\/08\/river-pollution-greenpeace-1120.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2017\/08\/river-pollution-greenpeace-1120.jpg","width":1920,"height":1097,"caption":"A turbulent, muddy river intersecting green fields on either side."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/nz-taxpayers-forced-to-fund-dirty-rivers-again\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NZ taxpayers forced to fund dirty rivers, again"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/","name":"Greenpeace Aotearoa","description":"Our mission is to ensure Earth\u2019s ability to nurture life in all its diversity.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/a58246c9e62a8d04103f0a1f5a4ab62f","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/92a4ffcb4a1c6076205104a37a3930fa28607751d6b1c627fcd41f91a4ed4da5?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/92a4ffcb4a1c6076205104a37a3930fa28607751d6b1c627fcd41f91a4ed4da5?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"admin"},"url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1964"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7033,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1964\/revisions\/7033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1964"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=1964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}