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CI Times Weekly | Current Issue 429| 13 January 2012

Bad smells and radical solutions
In the wake of the well-publicised Scott’s Farm debacle, John Scott has been advised by Public Health to carry out more frequent clean-ups of waste on his farm, as well as ensuring those clean-ups happen within certain hours, to reduce the smell impact on surrounding residents.
Public Health this week conducted a survey of residents’ health in the surrounding area, as well as employees of the farm itself. Recent reports have suggested that some nearby residents see the Public Health survey as a “quick fix” and questions remain on what solutions, if any, the government is looking at to address the issue. On a wider scale issues are raised regarding importation substitution. In a report prepared for the Business Trade and Investment Board (BTIB) on importation substitution last year, eggs were not included as one of the target products. BTIB’s Chief Executive Officer, Terry Rangi, said however that from BTIB’s perspective they were supportive of local egg producers. “I think eggs – particularly because there are a small number of egg producers – it is an area that could have better support locally. But it requires a number of entities supporting that – beyond us. You need the legislation, you need to put in place measures to protect local industry and make it a little bit harder to bring in imported lines. Right now, it’s quite easy because a lot of tariffs have been removed, so it’s quite easy to bring in whatever.”
Rangi added that while it was BTIB’s concern to support Scott’s Farm and their role in the local egg industry, the view of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development taxation department, who are involved in tariffs, was “at odds” with that. “Their thinking is: do you make it harder to bring in certain product lines, and the consumer suffers not having that choice? Or do you support local enterprise? Those are the two options. Our organisation tends to support local enterprise a little bit more than the consumer I guess, but that’s what you’ve got to weigh up.”
When questioned on what impact he thought Scott’s Farm’s public health issues were having, Rangi commented, “This sort of thing doesn’t help Scott’s. As I understand it they’ve been around for a while. What was possible 20 years ago is probably not the same thing now. They do have to comply with the rules that are in place. In saying that, I think government ministries could be a little bit more forthright with requirements. Some of the ministries that have been involved in this have been a bit timid in being able to deal with these sorts of issues – they’ve sort of just sat back a little bit and passed the buck.”
Rangi’s opinion was that Scott’s Farm could do more to address the issue and noted that a “blasé” attitude towards regulations and complying with the rules, which he described as being “endemic”, is a factor contributing to the situation. “People don’t want to be told what they can and can’t do on their own plots of land.”
Rangi agreed that the issue of residential and commercial zoning is an area that needs to be looked at. “Government could do better. Clearly Muri is an important tourism area. It’s no place for an egg farm – it really isn’t. In general we are supportive of the likes of Scott’s, we’re supportive of local industry, [but] they’ve got to comply with the basic laws and regulations.”
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Planning declined to comment on the issue of zoning for residential, farming and commercial areas as part of a wider solution to the problem, however a land use policy has been drafted, which looks at policy surrounding all forms of land use and is expected to cover the issue of zoning.

-Ngariki Ngatae

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