October 05, 2020
Candidates sniff Whareroa oppression
Labour’s Māori MPs may need masks on today when their caucus visits one of the country’s most polluted marae.
Whareroa Marae at Mount Maunganui, where at least eight of the MPs will be holding a lunchtime public meetings, is in a fight over the way it has become ringed with heavy industry.
In July the marae told Environment Ministry officials it wants its neighbours gone within 10 years, and it’s objecting to a proposed consent for a jet fuel depot over its back fence.
Spokesperson Joel Ngātuere says just yesterday air pollution from the Ballance fertiliser plant gave people at the marae sore noses and headaches.
He says consenting authorities say the firms are held to the national environmental standards – but those standards don’t work when a heavy industrial area is allowed to coexist with kaumatua flats and a kōhanga reo.
"We really want the DHB to come on board because this is a health issue as well, not just environmental and RMA stuff. There are a whole lot of people doing a whole lot of talk. What we want is action because while they are talking, while they are sitting on their hands, our kaumatua are dying before their time and our children are getting sick," Mr Ngātuere says.
He says the marae has been visited by Waiāriki candidates Rawiri Waititi from the Māori Party and Hannah Tamaki from Vision New Zealand, but it doesn’t want its take politicised.
The Labour Māori caucus will also hold a public meeting at Te Papaiouru Marae at Ohinemutu from 6 pm.