1. ANN HARTLEY (Labour) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
Has he received any recent reports on the cost of providing healthy drinking-water?
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister of Health) Link to this
Yes, I have. I have seen a copy of a speech by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Key, to the AGM of Local Government New Zealand, in which he said that the cost of providing healthy water to the community of Ōwaka in the Catlins would be $500,000. He is wrong; the highest estimated cost is about $50,000. I doubt whether Mr Key would have added the extra zero by mistake, given his career as a global money trader. Therefore, I invite him not to deal in irresponsible scaremongering around publicly funded essential services. Mr Key should try to stick with the truth.
No; there is not agreement across the parties in this House on that matter. The reason for that is that there is not agreement within the National Party. One view is that no action is required at all in this area, as it is “a totally non-existent problem”. Another view is that 24 percent of our water fails to meet bacteriological standards, and “a coordinated plan with local government is required to progressively upgrade water supplies”. The first statement is from Jonathan Coleman from the National Party; the second statement is from the National Party’s Nick Smith.
Nandor TanczosIs the Minister concerned that the growth of irrigated dairy farming in Canterbury is posing a risk to water quality and to public health, in light of the warning from the Canterbury medical officer of health about the potential for significant health effects from the proposed Central Plains Water irrigation scheme to irrigate 60,000 hectares of farmland in Canterbury?
There are many causes of poor quality, or insufficient quality, in New Zealand’s drinking-water—dairying being amongst them, but by no means the only one. New Zealanders enjoy good drinking-water standards in cities and often nowhere near good enough standards out in the countryside. We have a lot of water-borne illnesses as a result of that.
In that case, can the Minister tell the House what he makes of a report from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research that proves a link between intensive dairying and drinking-water contamination by campylobacter, cryptosporidium, and E. coli; and is that the result of a 4-year Government sustainable water programme of inaction?