1080 & the steely cold face of corporations

We recently posted a story about Joel Lund of Wanaka who while attending a local function, chanced upon Lou Sanson, the CE of NZ’s Department of Conservation (DoC). As anyone would, Joel made the most of that random opportunity to ask him some questions. It’s getting pretty difficult to dialogue with any DoC staff these days going by reports I’m hearing where folk with standard questions about impending drops get the short shift & are promptly hung up on. So Joel asked the CE some pertinent questions on the use of aerial 1080, particularly the use of alternatives.  This move on Joel’s part has since been decried in social media however because as it transpires, the CE was actually attending a funeral. He’s been reported as saying it was a reluctant ‘interview’ & considered inappropriate.

As unfortunate as the setting may have been & with all due respects to the grieving, nevertheless indifference to human feelings goes with the territory of  a corporation … an entity that exists for profit only …  owing no allegiance to humans whatsoever…

“Corporations are required by law to place the financial interests of their owners above competing interests. They are legally bound to put their bottom line ahead of everything else, even the public good” (Noam Chomsky, ‘The Corporation’).

Corporations consider profits only, that’s it. Don’t believe me? Watch ‘The Corporation’ documentary (posted below).

A corporation has been defined as “… a business structure whose sole reason for existence is the earning of profits by manufacturing products for as little as possible and selling them for as much as possible. It does not matter whether the product does good or evil; what counts is that it be consumed – in ever-increasing quantities” (Barnet & Muller, ‘Global Reach: The Power of the Multinational Corporations’ p24)

Corporations are analyzed in this documentary using the World Health Organization’s personality diagnostic checklist & are found to exhibit all the traits of a psychopathic personality.  The Corporation movie is your Corporations 101 class, an absolute must watch. Viewing it will connect many dots for you and explain much about the state the world is in today. The psychopathic diagnosis checklist for this disorder includes the following:

• A callous unconcern for the feelings of others

• An incapacity to maintain enduring relationships

• A reckless disregard for the safety of others

• Deceitfulness: repeated lying and conning others for profit

• An incapacity to experience guilt

• Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behavior

Sept 2018 saw a turnout of thousands at the culmination of a hikoi from the North & South of NZ

All sounds pretty familiar doesn’t it when you consider what we’ve been up against with regard to any negotiation over 1080 poison drops on our land, water and food. So, in light of all of the above, is the CE bothered about the two South Island women showered with 1080 pellets whilst out picnicking or their subsequent ongoing health issues? It would seem not. Was he concerned that the NZ lab lost a young hiker’s heart who according to her Doctor, may have been poisoned by 1080? It appears not as there are still no answers forthcoming on that one.  Is he concerned at all about the Putaruru family who may have been poisoned by his corporation’s favorite poison? Or that the hospital did not test them in a timely fashion as recommended by the health professionals attending them? It would seem not. And what of the recent risk of 1080 in Auckland’s water supply? No again. Is he bothered that thousands of target and non-target animals and other wildlife die very long and agonizing deaths following his corporation’s ongoing 1080 drops? Or is he concerned that according to the late Dr Peter Scanlon 1080 may have been implicated in causing a cluster of miscarriages, stillbirths and congenital malformations to the children of pregnant women following aerial drops on the Whanganui River? Or that the data sheet of his corporation’s poison says not to drop it into waterways?

I don’t think so. His first & foremost allegiance is to the corporation he serves and not to the public of NZ. And after all our country itself is a corporation is it not? How can a corporation function as a democracy & thereby be considerate of the wishes of its citizens?

Related: NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO DO AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY IN NZ TO SEE HOW 1080 POISON MAY BEHAVE IN OUR POPULATIONS LIVING WITHIN THE POISON AND DUST ZONES

“IF YOU DIE FROM 1080 POISONING NOBODY WILL KNOW” … BULLIED DOCTORS ARE NOT DOING THE TESTS SAID DR CHARLIE BAYCROFT AT SATURDAY’S PROTEST IN WELLINGTON

So if this is the modus operandi that corporations operate under, then why the surprise or offense from corporates about the setting of an impromptu interview when you clearly get what you give? Of all people they know the rules of engagement. Methinks it is more about diversion from the real issue at hand for the NZers who would like to decline the option of 1080 in their food chain.

Remember the CE of Nestlé’s notorious statement about water not being a human right? This is the mentality we are dealing with here.

Water is not a human right? Yet it is a corporate right to take it, bottle it and sell it back to us? Similarly it is their right to drop the ecotoxin 1080 directly into our waterways?

Related: 1080 WAS ADDED TO WATER SUPPLIES BY GERMANY IN WW2 AS A CHEMICAL WEAPON SAYS A US MANUFACTURER – & THE NZ AUTHORITIES ARE DROPPING IT AERIALLY INTO NZ’S WATERWAYS

PRIOR TO ITS US BAN, 1080 WAS ADDED TO WATER TO POISON SHIP RATS – YET DOC SAYS IT’S SAFE IN OUR WATERWAYS

Make no mistake, corporations do not care about you. Profits are their only concern. Remember the recent helicopter entourage of 30 international bankers including the head of Goldman Sachs escorted by Lou Sanson over Fiordland? At the bottom of that one was the intriguing Nature Conservancy group ... for-profit corporations partnering with environmental organizations … known today as ‘greenwash’. Dirty corporations like Dow that are as much about conservation as pigs are about flying. ‘Conservation’ for profit. On that topic, consider the revelations of a former Taupo Mayor who exposed the gravy train that 1080 is, who did have a go at eliminating the poison, to no avail unfortunately. Mayors who are generally on as little as one third that of their CEs’ salaries clearly have no more voting power than the councilors who agree with them.

I reiterate, please do watch ‘The Corporation’ movie. If the entire planet stopped buying their stuff they would collapse overnight.

They rely on your patronage to continue their obscene practice of sucking everything on the planet dry … for profit … smiling at you and shaking your hand as they do so.

They are, after all, very good at lying & conning for profit. According to that WHO checklist at any rate.

 

John Key, the smiling assassin, pictured all but ‘gifting’ NZ’s water to OnePure at cantonfair.org.cn (click on the images to enlarge)

Watch The Corporation movie

Note:  If you are unable to watch the movie, visit the website http://www.thecorporation.com/ where you will find transcripts to download.

Some insights on DoC from insiders

Some insights on DoC here from insiders … note that familiar word ‘restructure’ the the smoke & mirror modus operandi of the corporates. When the music stops (the restructure music) … less bums on seats, more work for those who are left, more profits for CE & the likes. A post Rogernomics tactic.

Insiders pan DOC’s corporate embrace

From newsroom.co.nz

Another sign of how the Department of Conservation has lost its way, some insiders and ex-staffers say, is its embrace of corporate management methods. David Williams reports.

Faced with staff discontent, the Department of Conservation called in consultants and rolled out a suite of management tools. First there was the so-called interface project, to improve relations between scientific and operational staff. After that, there was “team process” and “reflection logs”, and, for managers, “single-point accountability”.

DOC director-general Lou Sanson, a proponent of the changes, says when he was appointed in 2013 the department was “siloed”, after two big restructures that shed 250 jobs. The new wave of staff interactions have led to huge advances, he says.

But critics say the new set of behavioural rules are another sign DOC has lost its way – showing how disconnected the leadership of the organisation’s become from the work it’s there to do. One former DOC worker says the department’s been captured by fads, which has ushered in a period of “empty change”. They paint a picture of excruciatingly awkward, hours-long meetings of unnecessary navel-gazing.

Another former DOC staffer says: “A tremendous amount of money, time and effort was being spent on what I would regard as wasted projects trying to make communication internally within the department better.”

‘Just doing his job’

A current DOC insider says the changes accentuated the decision-making authority of managers, who were encouraged to manage workers more assertively. That’s made them more sensitive to people who – like departed ecologist Nick Head – challenge authority about poor decisions.

Head was controversially suspended for sending photos to conservation organisations, after being asked to do so, of irrigation pipeline work on public conservation land. But some of his ex-colleagues say he was just doing his job and was effectively punished for speaking up about “piss-poor” decisions.

READ MORE

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@environment/2018/07/16/155418/insiders-pan-docs-corporate-embrace?fbclid=IwAR1Mcy4HgoohTj3BAl4xf2lCJTOGQ02wB6EIYzRxFG_FQ4nidGNg_Tu5qXM

What NZ CEOs are paid

It’s difficult to be positive about the obscene salaries these people receive. Especially in light of Rogernomics & the Neo-lib disaster that destroyed so many people. And continues to do so. Great idea for those at the top, not so for those at the bottom. Of course it was a scam & in my opinion never intended to benefit everybody. We can see who it is benefiting right in plain sight here.

From the NZ Herald

Chief executives at New Zealand’s biggest companies got a 2.2 per cent pay rise last year, taking their average earnings to $1,755,352 in the 2017 financial year.

It was the second-smallest increase in the 13-year history of the Business Herald’s CEO pay survey.

The survey covers the top 50 companies listed on the sharemarket, with the exception of some property firms whose management structure makes it difficult to calculate CEO pay, and the addition of Fonterra because of its size, and Herald publisher NZME, included in the interests of transparency.

Fifteen executives experienced earnings declines last year, compared with nine recorded in the previous year’s survey. The 2.2 per cent average increase was the lowest on record, apart from 2011, when average CEO pay fell by 0.4 per cent.

While CEO earnings increases were modest compared to some previous years, 38 of the 50 chief executives in the survey still received more than $1 million in remuneration, and their average was 55 times the median annual income Kiwis received in that year, recorded at $31,928, according to Statistics NZ.

The average CEO increase was in line with the 2.3 per cent rise Kiwis received last year.

Former Fonterra boss Theo Spierings was the highest-paid executive last year. Spierings, who stepped down last month, received $8.3m for the 2017 financial year, up from $4.66m he received a year earlier.

READ MORE at the link (graphs & figures included)

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/personal-finance/news/article.cfm?c_id=12&objectid=12134854

 

 

Why is Horowhenua’s Mayor Feyen constantly kept out of the HDC loop?

SHARE Constant lack of information provided to me as Mayor is par for the course in this HDC council. Regards.

See our LG Watch pages, main menu.

Things are not right on NZ’s District Council front as yet another Councillor cites bullying & quits

The quitting Councillor who cites bullying as his reason for departure is from the South Wairarapa District Council. Bullying was also reported in the Horowhenua by a now ex Councillor Mrs Anne Hunt. (Read here also on that). Another Clr spoke out about being told how to vote (& I’ve heard two other occasions/councils elsewhere that that happens that I can’t cite names for).  For your perusal here are a few more:

Claims of bullying, blackmail at Wanganui District Council (2012)
Gore District Council accused of ‘bullying’ (2008)
Horowhenua Mayor says he won’t cave to ‘bullies’ (2017)
Council bullying case costs $300,000 (2012)
Accusation of ‘bullying’ over Marlborough Council leak
Bullying Auckland Council
Cowboy park owner claims council’s bullying him (Westland 2016)

Obviously all is not well on the District Council fronts these days. (Not if you value honesty, transparency and due process that is). If you’ve noticed the same you need to read up on (UN) Agenda 21/30, see our pages at the main menu. Particularly you should read Dr Naomi Jacobs’ downloadable ebook on those pages. She throws a whole lot of light on what’s really going on … she wrote that after seeing the debacle that happened at NZ’s Kaipara/Mangawhai and their escalating rates. Also see the Local Govt Watch pages for more info on that. Rodney’s another interesting one where a gentleman lost his house & business for speaking up about council corruption. And of course our own Horowhenua where the new deputy Mayor’s post was very short lived & they also steadily refuse to open the books. Much like Auckland at present witness Penny Bright’s battle over that one. And so it just keeps coming. You need to watch this one especially as your rates continue to escalate exponentially, while your CEs sit on obscenely bloated salaries (Horowhenua $250K, some districts are over half a mill, Ak is $690K) and under their highly paid (incompetent?) watch your council debts climb through the roof. Seventy odd million Horowhenua’s was two years ago (some said $100 mill) and nobody in Council blinks an eye aside from the whistle blowers who do see something wrong with it. Something’s not right in the state of Denmark folks. As the saying goes.   EnvirowatchRangitikei

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From Wairarapa times-age.co.nz

A South Wairarapa councillor has resigned, citing “no confidence” in the mayor and district council’s chief executive.

Dayle Harwood emailed South Wairarapa Mayor Viv Napier and his former fellow councillors yesterday with the news.

Mrs Napier has accepted his resignation and plans to be in touch with Local Government New Zealand today to begin the process of finding a replacement via a by-election.

Mr Harwood told the Times-Age he was sick and tired of the “pettiness” and “elements of bullying” that went on behind the scenes.

He was elected onto South Wairarapa District Council (SWDC) for the Featherston ward in 2016.

He said there needed to be a change of attitude, and South Wairarapa needed a clear, new vision going forward.

“It’s time the council be led properly, and South Wairarapa deserves that. They voted against amalgamation, so they think this is a better model. The council needs to prove it, and they’re not doing that.”

He said he was also fed up with SWDC chief executive Paul Crimp not taking responsibility for issues that he was accountable for.

“I personally have no confidence in the mayor and CEO and I wish them all the best.”

Mr Crimp said Mr Harwood’s comments would be taken on board.

“As with any situation like this, we’ll look at the messages coming out and see what improvements, if any, need to be made.”

Mr Harwood said he “wasn’t getting any back up” from other councillors, and that SWDC did not appreciate his outspokenness.

“I felt it was just me up against the whole council.”

READ MORE

https://times-age.co.nz/councillor-quits-cites-bullying/

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Closing on the note of council debts. Here is the Horowhenua Councillor Ross Campbell who was ousted from his new role as Deputy Mayor shortly after being appointed by the newly elected mayor who is of the same persuasion (prefers clean water, transparency, paying down debt not inflating it etc etc). The main reason cited at Cr Campbell’s ousting being speaking out about matters considered in-house or words to that effect on the modus operandi of the Economic Development Cttee (now Board where non elected members are privy to inside business / council info). The main offending matter is contained in a video at this link. In the video below he speaks about the ballooning debt of Horowhenua DC.

Chief executives don’t support intercepting emails – unlike Horowhenua council’s boss

 

From Stuff.co.nz

Chief executives from councils in the lower North Island see no reason for intercepting emails – a practice Horowhenua District Council’s boss uses to “protect” his staff.

In an audit report, Horowhenua council chief executive David Clapperton was shown to be intercepting emails from members of the public, Horowhenua’s mayor and councillors.

He would block emails, redirect them, or let them continue to their intended destinations, which he said was “necessary to protect my employees so they can carry out their roles safely without undue interference, inappropriate criticism and racist slurs”.

In some cases, the council did not inform people that their emails were being intercepted, according to multiple sources.

READ MORE:
* Complaint made to Privacy Commissioner over Horowhenua email interception
* Councillors stand by under-fire chief executive embroiled in email snooping revelations
* Concerns raised about email interception at Horowhenua District Council
* Editorial: Clapperton’s position is untenable
* Legal questions about ‘astonishing’ email interceptions
* Councillors stand by under-fire chief executive embroiled in email snooping revelations
Some emails that were sent by residents to councillors – not the council – were among those intercepted by Clapperton.

Chief executives from Manawatu and Tararua district councils, and Horizons Regional Council, said there was no reason to intercept emails at their councils.

READ MORE

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95172391/chief-executives-dont-support-intercepting-emails–unlike-horowhenua-councils-boss

Is Local Government in New Zealand Corrupt?

This is right on topic and worth a re-visit in light of recent goings on around the country. We as a nation have adopted such a time worn clean green image, it doesn’t occur to many that the reality of the image died long ago, especially with only 40% of our rivers now clean enough to swim in. The clean and green has spilled over long ago into every area of our lives to the extent most Kiwis wouldn’t dream of believing corporations lie to us. Invited over a year ago to speak to a group of senior cits about Smart Meters (aka here as Advanced Meters) my information was greeted in some corners with snickers and whispers. We are a very trusting nation, particularly that generation. That was great three and four decades ago. It isn’t any more. If you are that trusting now you are fair game and seen as simply a sucker. I watch with angst as I see it played out before me … the elderly treated as cash cows by enterprising and unscrupulous business people, and particularly real estate agents. If you’re snickering now please go and watch The Corporation documentary (halfway down the ‘Corporations’ page). That will make you stop. Not to get off topic here (I could say much more but I won’t) … our District Councils have come under much scrutiny of late with many particularly savvy people holding them to the lip service they tend to pay on their websites. Check out our Local Government Watch pages on the site menu for some of the happenings around your country Kiwis. All is not as good as many believe. Listen to the story of the man in Rodney who exposed the corruption in his District Council. He lost his home and business. Certain ones will deal to those who rock the boat it seems.

The following article is from the Whale Oil blog and raises some important data to ponder on.
EnvirowatchRangitikei

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by Cameron Slater on August 21, 2015 
With three officers from Auckland Council CCO – Auckland Transport – now set to go on trial for bribery it is a convenient opportunity to raise the issue of corruption in local authorities.

Most ordinary citizens have no idea that corruption is rife. But there are varying types of corrupt behaviour and unless one is familiar with the law they can be overlooked.

Two of the most common forms of corruption occur so often you think it’s normal.

These two particular forms of corruption do not result in personal gain – such as back pocketing cash. But they do result in breaking the law, and they happen daily.

 

The first is ‘malfeasance’ and the second is ‘misfeasance’.

Both are the abuse of authority – or the position of authority.

These generally occur by breaking the rule of law. In NZ the laws that generally govern Local Government are the LGA (Local Government Act) and the RMA (Resource Management Act). Some other laws like the Public Works Act are part and parcel as well.

Breaking the law for ordinary citizens results in penalties. If caught it can do the same for those in local government but nobody is policing them so nothing happens.

READ MORE

http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2015/08/is-local-government-in-new-zealand-corrupt/

Here’s why you should boycott Nestlé – from the horse’s mouth

This greedy man, CEO of the largest food company in the world, believes water is not a human right! His company thinks nothing however of siphoning water off from countries not their own… for mere peanuts … and selling it for huge profits. We allow these predators to survive by buying their stuff. Boycott them! Enough is enough!

More on Nestlé, for good measure …

 

EnvirowatchRangitikei

“Toe the line and deny any pollution by the HDC” was the clear message given by Mayor Brendan Duffy to Horowhenua District Councillors – a former HD Councillor speaks out

” … during my time on council … I was placed under pressure to toe the line and deny there was a [pollution] problem”  Former HDC Councillor Anne Hunt

Former Horowhenua District Councillor Anne Hunt, who is backing the claims made by both Councillors Campbell and Feyen (see links at bottom of page) regarding the HDC’s role in pollution of Horowhenua’s waterways,  has revealed that on two occasions they as Councillors were given a clear message by Mayor Brendan Duffy that they were to “toe the line and deny pollution by the Council”. The first of those occasions concerning a 2008 visit by Green Party Co-Leader Russel Norman is addressed here, the second which relates to the pollution of Shannon’s waterways, will be covered in another post.

Mrs Hunt has previously stated on Maori Television in a documentary about the pollution of Lake Horowhenua that HDC is its “worst polluter” and she still stands by this statement (see video at 3.56 minutes).

Dr Russel Norman’s Visit in 2008

Mrs Hunt described an occasion in 2008 when Dr Russel Norman came to Levin to speak with HDC’s Mayor, CEO and representatives about the pollution of Lake Horowhenua by Levin’s nearby waste water treatment plant. At a Council workshop on the day prior, they were told, said Mrs Hunt, that TV3 was coming up to interview the CEO David Ward. Cr Leigh McMeeken suggested they should all stand around him as a show of support. She  describes the workshop:

“We were all sitting around the council table, and Brendan [Mayor Duffy] asked each councillor individually to speak to this and voice their support [of the CEO’s stance]… finally coming around to glare at me. I felt most uncomfortable and managed to mumble a non-committal answer. But the message was clear that I was not to step out of line. The Mayor and every other councillor supported the staff position on this, and agreed that Dr Norman was simply political point scoring”.

Put simply, Mrs Hunt says they knew they were to deny that their Council was polluting the lake.

Dr Russel Norman standing by Lake Horowhenua on his visit to HDC in 2008 – he correctly concludes the lake was contaminated with E.coli [Photo Credit: Green Party]

During his visit Dr Norman was given the opportunity to fly over the lake and take photographs. It was not until a couple of months later that he was proven right by Horizons official tests  (3 Oct 08 Manawatu Standard) about the sewage pollution when samples showed high levels of E coli, confirming faecal contamination.

Aerial photograph by Dr Norman showed groundwater from earthworks at the plant was pouring into the lake and creating a plume of dirtier lake water

Dr Norman’s Conclusions on the Sewage Contamination

Dr Norman concluded there was absolutely no doubt sewage was seeping into the lake and said it was turning out to be one of NZ’s worst sewage disasters in years. Official tests found high levels of E.coli between council sewage ponds and Lake Horowhenua. He commented that the HDC had a history of resource consent breaches including a then recent court appearance regarding Shannon’s sewage ponds. Mayor Brendan Duffy and CEO David Ward he said, have constantly downplayed risks, with Mayor Duffy calling any critics of his waste disposal practices ‘ill-informed’. The council had given priority he said to  a $10.4 mill council building over proper waste treatment.

The new Council building … “an edifice to stupidity” – Cr Michael Feyen

The Sewage Pollution of Lake Horowhenua was FACT

This has been an abbreviated revision of Dr Norman’s conclusions. Fuller coverage  will be the subject of a later post. It serves here in its brevity to illustrate that in spite of HDC denials, the pollution of Lake Horowhenua by sewage was factual, as official tests later proved. And the point of this post being to endorse the actions of Mr Andrews (the 70 year old Shannon environmentalist who was recently assaulted at his home by intruders) and Crs Ross Campbell and Michael Feyen,  in endeavouring to film what appears to be deliberate pollution by the HDC,  bringing it to the notice of the public. A public that elected these representatives to manage their public resources, prudently and not negligently.

Particularly, it exposes, thanks to Mrs Hunt, the clearly unethical tactics employed by the HDC in coercing its Councillors to think and ‘vote’ a certain way.

You have a situation here where your Councillors that you vote for on election day, the people whom you are expecting to represent your views when important decisions are made at your local District Council … they are actually being told how to vote … and that is according to the directive of the CEO.

Is this democratic?

Clearly not.

What  we have here it seems, is an illusion of democracy. Behind those closed doors Councillors are not permitted to represent you … their hands are tied. Clearly there have been three Councillors here who were willing to speak the truth … at great cost to themselves. For that I applaud them.

“When we tolerate what we know to be wrong–when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy, or too frightened–when we fail to speak up and speak out–we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice”. – Robert Francis Kennedy

Finally, bear in mind that your local District Councils are registered on Dun and Bradstreet’s website as companies. (Check this out for yourself). A company is:

“… any formal business entity for profit which may be a corporation, a partnership, association or individual proprietorship…” SOURCE

So we need to be asking ourselves, to whom do our Councils (that are really companies) owe their allegiance? To you the ratepayer/citizen? Or to corporate/company interests, given they exist ‘for profit’? Does this not explain a few anomalies? 

On a final note, these courageous Councillors who have put their heads above the parapet and spoken truth deserve our thanks. Do consider emailing them in that regard, or leave a comment here. And the same goes for the local residents, in particular Mr Andrews, who have also stood up and been counted.

 

EnvirowatchRangitikei

 

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RELATED:

Exposing the pollution of your waterways may well incur a violent backlash as two Horowhenua residents found out – the ongoing lip service councils pay to Iwi, the RMA & ‘sustainable development’

Horowhenua District Council’s pollution whistleblower has been served a trespass warrant – so what’s to hide?

“HDC is a top drawer polluter” says another Horowhenua District Councillor who filmed similar pollution to Shannon’s 14 months ago – he says HDC’s recent take was “misleading & full of half-truths”

“The whole thrust of one workshop was aimed at undermining the credibility of WECA members” … More revelations from a former Councillor on Horowhenua DC’s “long-standing & insidious” tactics

 

SOURCES FOR ARTICLE:

3 Oct 08 Manawatu Standard-Lake Horowhenua Contamination from Sewage Confirmed 

Sad Time for Lake Horowhenua – Green Party Press Release 2 Sept 08

Sewage Ponds Overflow at Lake Horowhenua Green Party Press Release 21 Aug 08 – Russel Norman gets offside with local Council 26 Aug 08