{"id":79460,"date":"2026-10-13T16:11:04","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T03:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?p=79460"},"modified":"2026-10-13T16:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T03:11:09","slug":"election-candidates-to-debate-fresh-water-in-christchurch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/election-candidates-to-debate-fresh-water-in-christchurch\/","title":{"rendered":"Election candidates to debate fresh water in Christchurch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Greenpeace has announced that it will host an election debate on fresh water in Christchurch on October 19th, titled \u2018the Great Freshwater Debate\u2019.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The debate will be held at The Piano (156 Armagh Street), and all major political parties have been invited to attend.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Greenpeace spokesperson Rhiannon Mackie says, \u201cWe should all be able to swim in the local river, or drink the water coming out of our kitchen tap without getting sick. So far, no government has done enough to protect freshwater from pollution and over-use.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis debate offers us the opportunity to hear directly from the main political parties how they plan to&nbsp; protect the water we drink, the lakes we swim in, and the rivers we take kai from.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Parties who have confirmed their attendance at the debate include Labour, NZ First, the Green Party, and Opportunity. Greenpeace is calling on National, Act, and Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori to join them.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The debate will be independently moderated by senior Newsroom journalist, David Williams. Immediately following the debate, an expert panel will comment on the political positions. Expert panel members are: Greenpeace Aotearoa Executive Director, Dr Russel Norman; Gabrielle Huria CEO of Te Kura Taka Pini, Ng\u0101i Tahu; Irrigation NZ chair, Andrew Mockford; and freshwater scientist and public health policy researcher, Marnie Prickett.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Media are welcome to attend, and Greenpeace can organise interviews with members of the expert panel before or after the debate.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The public are being invited to submit questions in advance by emailing <a href=\"mailto:people.power@greenpeace.org\">people.power@greenpeace.org<\/a>\u00a0 with &#8216;Great Freshwater Debate &#8211; Question&#8217; as the subject line. The debate is free but seats are limited, so <a href=\"https:\/\/community.greenpeace.org.nz\/events\/the-great-freshwater-debate\">those attending are asked to register in advance<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greenpeace has announced that it will host an election debate on fresh water in Christchurch on October 19th, titled \u2018the Great Freshwater Debate\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":79463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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_seo_meta_title":"","p4_seo_meta_description":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[22],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-79460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-freshwater","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.8 (Yoast SEO v26.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Election 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