Palau president weighs in on Trump's deep sea mining push
Palau's president says the executive order issued by US president Donald Trump in April to fast-track deep sea mining is not a good idea.
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NZ Herald
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'Really concerning ' and 'sneaky' reforms by the coalition Government are stripping back protections for nature so fast that 'no New Zealander can keep up', Forest and Bird 's CEO says. Nicola Toki raised the alarm in an interview on Newstalk ZB's Real Life with John Cowan
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Contact Energy seeks to dip deeper into Lake Hāwea
The view from a Department of Conservation Lake Hāwea walking track. Contact Energy has applied for Fast Track permission to lower the lake level from 338m above sea level to 330m under some circumstances. Photo: Supplied/ Department of Conservation Lake Hāwea residents are alarmed by a proposal that could dramatically shift their local shoreline. Contact Energy is seeking fast-track consent to lower the lake's minimum operating level from 338 metres to 336 metres above sea level - and, in extreme circumstances, drop it as low as 330 metres. The change would allow the company to draw an additional six metres of water from the lake during dry years - a move it said would boost renewable energy generation and help safeguard electricity supply when demand was high. Contact Energy lodged a referral application with the government on Monday, seeking to enter the proposal into the fast-track consenting process. The group Guardians of Lake Hāwea (GLH) has appealed to Contact Energy and local authorities to ensure the community has a say. GLH chairman Geoff Kernick told a Queenstown Lakes District Council meeting last week that the costs of such a change would be borne by the community and the environment. "We don't need to compromise our lake, and the community's access to aquifer water, in the interest of security of supply," he said. He said a significant drop in the lake level would be an "obvious" degradation of the outstanding natural landscape, and risked dust storms and harm to bore water supplies. "Contact have said in their initial proposal 'overall, it is considered the adverse effects of the project can be appropriately managed and mitigated.' We wholeheartedly disagree," he said. In a statement, Contact Energy's head of hydro Blair Croall said Contact had been exploring options to strengthen energy resiliency, amid a $2.3 billion investment in renewables. The proposal to lower Lake Hāwea at times of extreme need was "in the early stages," he said. Croall said communities were central to the company's decision-making. "We remain committed to open, transparent engagement with the communities in which we operate," he said. The company did not answer RNZ's questions about why it was seeking fast-track consent, or how it planned to ensure community input. Otago Regional Council confirmed Contact Energy had approached it for formal consultation on the proposal. Regional council environmental manager Joanna Gilroy said there'd been "a high level discussion on the proposal to change the operating levels of Lake Hāwea." "Until ORC has seen detailed information on what Contact Energy is proposing it is not possible to state which specific environmental or water management concerns, we may raise as part of our involvement in the process," she said. "Based on the discussions we have had to date we have signalled that they should consider impacts such as groundwater levels, lake levels and water quality. As we gain further understanding of the proposal and the technical information, other effects may also be raised." Queenstown Lakes District Council confirmed it had also met with Contact Energy staff this month, who ran council staff through their proposal and the reasons why they were seeking consent. "It is worth noting Contact Energy is not seeking any consents under QLDC's District Plan as all the consents they require stem from Otago Regional Council's planning documents. As such, any monitoring and enforcement of consent conditions - should an application be lodged and granted - would be within the jurisdiction of ORC." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Community support workers among NZ's lowest paid
They are among New Zealand's lowest paid employees. The wages of home and community support workers, who look after the country's elderly, typically max out about $29 an hour. They also use their own vehicles to travel between jobs and, while they're reimbursed for that, it's at an amount significantly less than IRD recommends for personal vehicle use. The issue was part of a pay equity claim by the female dominated workforce, who consider themselves underpaid in comparison to those dominated by men. That's now off the table after the government changed the law last month. Jimmy Ellingham reports. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
