Doggone penalties

In September 2015, the Trust made an application for resource consent. On 11 May 2016, three resource consents were granted; two land use consents and one discharge consent issued under s15 of the RMA.

Regulation 5, as amended on 2 June 2017 provides that the discharge of the RMA contaminant brodifacoum is exempt from s15 of the RMA if the discharge complies with the Regulations.

The weighting of scientific evidence by which brodifacoum and 1080 have been deemed safe for use in specific circumstances by the Minister, the New Zealand Food Safety Authority and the Department of Conservation is not under direct challenge in this proceeding.

Some of the evidence advanced, particularly on behalf of the Group, were statements of opinion.

The risk regarding the use of brodifacoum has been assessed many times by a variety of different departments, agencies, council planners and scientists as acceptably low, when used with appropriate constraints. A 50 per cent penalty now applies for dog registrations in Tasman district that remain unpaid. As of last week, the registrations for 10,085 of the 10,900 known dogs in the district had been paid. TDC regulatory administration officer Ross Connochie said the penalty would increase the registration cost for an urban dog from $50 to $75 while the cost for a rural dog would jump from $30 to $45. TDC staff had made 800 phone calls and sent 700 emails as reminders for those unpaid since the end of June.