Sage defends water plant call
WELLINGTON: A Government minister is standing by her decision to approve the expansion of a water bottling plant, despite her vocal opposition to such initiatives before she was in government.
Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage defended her decision on RNZ’s Morning Report yesterday and said her previous opposition had been superseded when she became a minister.
‘‘Those were comments I made as an MP,’’ she said.
‘‘When you’re a minister you actually have to take into account you’re making a statutory decision under the law, the criteria in the law.’’
She was bound by the Overseas Investment Act, she said.
‘‘The advice form the overseas investment office was that the provision of 60 jobs in Whakatane, investment of $42.5 million by the company, with two new highspeed bottling lines and a bottleblowing plant was a major investment and it would be significant.’’
Ms Sage previously recused herself from making a decision on a hydroelectric scheme in the South Island, citing a conflict of interest as she had campaigned against it while in opposition.
‘‘That’s because I had put on my Facebook page a submission on that particular application.’’
There was no reason to recuse herself from the decision regarding the water bottling plant, she said.
‘‘You can’t just duck hard decisions.
‘‘I didn’t see there was any conflict of interest, so there was no reason to recuse myself.’’
The Government was working to tighten up provisions in the Overseas Investment Act, such as ‘‘significantly’’ changing ministerial directive of the OIA to include all farms more than 5ha being sold to overseas owners, where it was previously just ‘‘large farms’’.
‘‘There’s a commitment across all three parties to take action on putting a levy on water bottling,’’ she said. — RNZ