Sent to Responsible Ministers Bishop, Court and Jones with PM Luxon, Ministers Seymour, Peters and Potaka. Plus a copy to my Electorate MP Catherine Wedd.

Letter sent at the request of Hobsons Pledge with my modifications to their draft sample.

`Dear Ministers,

I am writing to you to express my strong support for Option 3 in respect of the Rebalancing of Te Mana O Te Wai in the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management. It is my understanding this calls for the complete removal of Te Mana O Te Wai completely from the policy and I say again that is the option I strongly support.

As you are aware, Te Mana O Te Wai, in its current form, incorporates spiritual and cultural concepts which are, in my view, inappropriate for inclusion in any form of National Freshwater Management policy. I cannot understand the presence of these concepts in the policy because they so obviously undermine practical, science-based water management. What is more it places unnecessary barriers on how all New Zealanders manage their freshwater resources, be they Farmers, Market Gardeners, Manufacturers, Industries such as Heinz Watties in Hastings and individual New Zealanders managing water on their own residential properties.

I feel compelled to reach out to you personally because the consultation process on the Ministry for the Environment’s website has proven to be excessively complex and difficult to navigate.

It is totally unsatisfactory that such an important matter has been made harder to engage with due to the complex accessibility in the consultation process. I am sure many New Zealanders, like myself, would like to provide input on this issue, but, the technical language and convoluted process have deterred many from participating and that is not how democracy in New Zealand should work..

As a result, I am providing this direct feedback to you, as the key Ministers involved. In order to make my position totally clear you will note that I have also included The Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and Ministers Peters and Potaka as well as my Electorate MP Catherine Wedd in this email.

I strongly believe that removing Te Mana O Te Wai from the National Policy Statement will pave the way for clearer, more effective management of our freshwater resources. Management that is based on evidence, science, and a shared understanding of the issues we face. In the longer term I also consider it’s removal will be important in helping to ensure that New Zealand does not face another move to the Privatise water by stealth through Co-Governance in the future.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my feedback. I look forward to your leadership in resolving this matter in the best interest of all New Zealanders.

Yours sincerely,’

The more emails the more the likelihood of success so get your emails off to the respective Ministers and any other MP’s you think would help the cause if they received one. A few others that have come to mind since I clicked send on my email are:

Mark Cameron, Mike Butterick, Nicola Grigg, Grant McCallum, Miles Anderson, Suze Redmayne, Dana Kirkpatrick and Joseph Mooney.

I should definitely have included Mark Cameron because he is very active in getting Te Mana O Te Wai off the books so will forward a copy to him later this evening.

ps Andrew Hoggard is another worth copying in.