Tourism Industry Supports Petition for Freshwater Policy to Parliament

The Tourism Export Council was delighted to be with the Choose Clean Water team and continue the support to campaign for better freshwater standards when they presented their petition of more than 13,000 signatures to parliament today at 1pm. The petition was received by 12 Members of Parliament, representing the Labour, Green and Maori Parties including Labour Leader Andrew Little, co-Leader of the Green Party Metiria Turei and co-leaders of the Maori Party Te Ururoa Flavell and Marama Fox.

The Choose Clean Water team toured New Zealand over the summer and collected stories of people who live with the effects of polluted rivers and lakes. The tour culminates with the handover of the petition.

The petition calls for better freshwater standards and demands that the Government increase their bottom-line standards for freshwater from “wadeable” to “swimmable”.

Choose Clean Water coordinator, Marnie Prickett, says supporters of the petition want the event to send a strong message to the Government that New Zealanders are committed to leaving clean, safe freshwater for the next generation.

“We have heard from the Minister for the Environment that current proposed legislations don’t make it clear that polluted rivers and lakes must be improved,” says Prickett.

“As it stands, the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management claims to safeguard the health of people and communities but only as affected by secondary contact with fresh water.”

“But rivers at this ‘secondary contact’ standard pose a risk of infection to people, even when they are just walking through them. This doesn’t safeguard the health of our people; in fact it does the opposite. This policy puts our country and our people in danger.”

Minister for the Environment, Hon Dr. Nick Smith, has said he’s open to strengthening the policy.

“Now is an historic moment for New Zealand in terms of how we manage freshwater and protect our rivers and lakes. It will have a huge effect on the lives of our young people and will be judged by future generations. We want to make sure our leaders do the right thing for all New Zealanders.” says Ms. Prickett.

Chief Executive of the Tourism Export Council, Lesley Immink agrees. “A significant motivation for visitors choosing destination New Zealand is our clean and green image and we want to ensure that reputation lasts for generations to come.  We believe water quality to be the single greatest challenge to maintaining New Zealand’s environmental promise,” says Ms Immink. She says that it is time the government and Ministers for Environment and Tourism, to recognise the value clean water has for the country and New Zealanders.

The Tourism Export Council have been inspired by the Choose Clean Water team and campaign and over the course of the past few months, the public awareness re the state of our waterways has reached the point that people are talking about ‘wadeable versus swimmable’ and understanding all the implications associated with unhealthy waterways. Ms Immink ends with “this has been a worthy and important issue for the tourism industry to support and we thank the Choose Clean Water team for their passion, commitment and demonstration of action when something as important as clean water – which looked like it was drowning amongst big business objectives, has now been given a lifeline”.

The group was joined on the steps of parliament by school children, politicians, Iwi, university students, representatives from the tourism industry, and major environmental groups.  A group on hīkoi from Turangi to Wellington (school students from Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Whakarewa i te Reo ki Tuwharetoa) gave a moving and emotional plea to government and opposition parties on behalf of the youngest New Zealanders who stand to lose the most if New Zealand’s water quality continues to declines as it has over the last decades.