New Chinese bid for 580 million litres of NZ water
our collective Aotearoa musical voice.’’
Under a joint initiative between Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Recorded Music NZ, two artists, bands or songwriters are inducted into the NZ Music Hall of Fame each year. One at the APRA Silver Scroll Awards and the other at the Vodafone Music Awards, run by Recorded Music NZ.
Anthony Healey, the New Zealand head of operations at APRA, said each organisation chose their inductee in accordance with ‘‘agreed criteria’’.
Launched in 2007 with first and only double inductee, The Exponents singer Jordan Luck, the Hall of Fame now boasts 20 Kiwi legends including Topp Twins, Hello Sailor, Shihad, Dragon, Toy Love and Herbs.
The Clean have rejected the Hall of Fame accolade twice in the past five years. ‘‘I think when we were asked it just didn’t feel right for us,’’ said Robert Scott.
‘‘We feel we are outside the industry, and in the past we were shunned and dismissed and it seems like by saying yes we would be forgiving the industry for that. Of course, with time they are proved wrong as our music has stood the test of time. It’s a strange thing dealing with other people’s perception of your music and what you stand for as a band.’’
But critics like Peter Grattan, who is on a mission to honour ‘‘our musical pioneers in their lifetimes’’, have argued that APRA and RMNZ are not inducting Kiwi music legends fast enough. His ideas have support. The official Hall of Fame Facebook page has just over 400 likes but Grattan’s unofficial page has more than 3000 fans.
The APRA Silver Scrolls are being held in Dunedin on September 28. A Chinese-owned company has applied to draw up to 580 million litres of water a year from the pristine Otakiri Springs, to bottle and ship overseas.
At a time when the commercialisation of freshwater is a sensitive election issue, the bid by the Nongfu Spring subsidiary is set to open the political floodgates.
Labour leader Jacinda Ardern is promising to crack down on royalty-free use of New Zealand’s limited water resources. And National’s Minister Nick Smith says his party has asked a technical group to look into charging for bottling water, but the report won’t be finished until after next month’s election.
Creswell NZ Limited has applied to Bay of Plenty Regional Council to grant a non-notified consent to increase its ability to draw and sell pure NZ water by 27,400 per cent.
The total annual take would be equivalent to 250 Olympic swimming pools – enough to give a 330ml bottle of water to every man, woman and child in New Zealand, every day of a year.
Creswell admits to the public sensitivity. The company’s own report writers, Beca Consulting, acknowledge the negative public opinion around the fact that little to no royalties are paid for selling New Zealand water.
‘‘One matter not discussed in detail in that analysis is the recent negative publicity regarding various proposals around New Zealand to bottle and export water and concerns raised about the lack of a royalty payment regime for such proposals,’’ says the report.
‘‘As the Council will appreciate, that is because those matters are not relevant to the consideration of the application under the Resource Management Act and must not be taken into account in the Council’s notification decision.’’
Currently the company takes two million litres of water for bottling but this could increase to 580 million litres a year.
By 2021, the plant would be drawing 208,000 litres per hour, every hour of every day, to fill 72,000 bottles, every hour of every day, for Chinese company Nongfu Spring.
Labour’s water spokesman David Parker said the fact Beca mentioned the negative public reaction in their application should be a red flag. ‘‘This is a prime example of why we need fair royalty from water use back to New Zealand,’’ he said.
‘‘How can people think this bottling operation is right?’’
Nongfu Spring Ltd has a sale purchase agreement with Otakiri Springs Ltd and Robertson Farms (the land-owners) which includes the transfer of the existing land use consent, with the ownership of their land.
The premium quality of New Zealand water is key to Creswell NZ’s application to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.
‘‘Nongfu Spring wishes to retain the Otakiri Brand and to market it as a premium New Zealand artesian bottled water brand.’’
The impact on the environment would be minimal, the application says, and the expansion of the existing bottling plant will generate 50 new jobs for Otakiri.
That would be worth $8.59 million to the local economy every year once the plant is fully operational, the application says.
Creswell NZ director Michael Gleissner yesterday defended the application, saying the aquifer had plenty of water and ability to recharge, and many jobs would be filled by local residents.
Salmonella Dub are a young band not yet deserving of a legacy award.’ ANDREW PENMAN How can people think this bottling operation is right?’ DAVID PARKER