{"id":525,"date":"2017-05-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/new-zealand\/press-release\/governments-absence-of-a-backbone-destroying-new-zealands-rivers\/"},"modified":"2024-07-12T14:58:04","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T02:58:04","slug":"governments-absence-of-a-backbone-destroying-new-zealands-rivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/governments-absence-of-a-backbone-destroying-new-zealands-rivers\/","title":{"rendered":"Government\u2019s ‘absence of a backbone’ destroying New Zealand\u2019s rivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greenpeace is calling on the Government to end public subsidies to think-big irrigation schemes that will create new intensive dairy farms and more freshwater pollution. <\/p>\n

Today, Minister for Primary Industries, Nathan Guy, announced that another nearly 90 million taxpayers dollars will be put towards building irrigation schemes.\u00a0 The Government has set aside $480 million through Crown Irrigation investments and the Irrigation Acceleration fund.<\/p>\n

Greenpeace campaigner, Genevieve Toop, says this extra money \u00a0is just another example of the Government’s \u201ctotal absence of a backbone\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis Government seems completely unable to stand up against big dairy and actually look after ordinary New Zealanders and the rivers we love and depend on,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur waterways are already not able to cope with the sheer number of dairy cows in New Zealand.\u00a0 We urgently need to reduce the national herd number and stop big irrigation schemes, like the Ruataniwha Dam.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sickening that amidst a freshwater crisis, our own Government is using public money to help the intensive dairy industry expand despite the devastation it will cause to our rivers and our way of life.””<\/p>\n

Greenpeace is calling on existing dairy farmers to speak out against big irrigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig irrigation is bad for existing dairy farmers who are legitimately trying to clean up their farms.\u00a0 All their good work to reduce pollution will \u00a0be cancelled out by additional pollution from new intensive dairy conversions that will be created under these irrigation schemes,\u201d Toop says.<\/p>\n

Nearly 70,000 people have signed apetitiondemanding an end to Government subsidies \u00a0for big irrigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greenpeace is calling on the Government to end public subsidies to think-big irrigation schemes that will create new intensive dairy farms and more freshwater pollution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2268,"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-525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-freshwater","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\nGovernment\u2019s 'absence of a backbone' destroying New Zealand\u2019s 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