Greens call for standard for stock exclusion from rivers

The Green Party is calling for mandatory stock exclusion from rivers within five years, in light of a voluntary scheme launched by Greater Wellington Regional Council yesterday.

"No one has a right to degrade our public waterways in the pursuit of private profit," said Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman.

"Voluntary measures are great, but insufficient. We need regulation to ensure that all farmers prevent stock from accessing our rivers where they cause immense damage."

Dr Norman was responding to A Guide to Managing Stock Access to Waterways in the Wellington Region, launched yesterday by Greater Wellington Regional Council in partnership with industry groups. The guide was purely informational and did not cite regulation.

"Our waterways belong to all New Zealanders. It should not be up to farmers to decide whether to protect them. There is no excuse for allowing stock to erode our riverbanks and defecate in our waterways," said Dr Norman.

"The documentary River Dog has highlighted the problem of stock in waterways in the Wellington region, however, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The problem is nationwide. Yet many councils, including Greater Wellington Regional Council, continue to rely on voluntary measures to address the problem.

"Voluntary and information campaigns are great, but they need to be backed up by mandatory minimum standards that are enforced.

"No one would suggest we rely solely on TV advertisements to keep people from drink driving, yet that is the approach we are taking to protecting our rivers from the degradation caused by stock access."

The Green Party recently released a plan to make New Zealand rivers and lakes clean enough to swim in again. One element of this plan was to implement nationwide standard which would exclude stock from all waterways within 5 years. The Greens would also assist farmers with the cost of excluding stock from waterways by creating a fund of 100 million dollars a year for five years. This would be used to match farmers dollar for dollar for their fencing and planting expenditure.

"Excluding stock from waterways has been shown to significantly improve water quality within three years," Dr Norman said.