The people vs. Minister for the Environment

The Brook valley community Group has filed urgent interim orders to suspend the drop of brodifacoum poison within the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary.

There are two respondents in this case – the first is the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary Trust; BWST who want to drop 26.5 tonnes of brodifacoum laced bait into a fenced 700+hectare sanctuary full of diverse bird life, an area that includes pristine A grade water that runs through the town and out into the bay.

For a full account of this story please see previous article  Will this be Nelsons Silent Spring?

The second respondent is Environmental minister Nick Smith, whose ministry amended the Resource Management Act (The RM exemption regulations)

Through their lawyers the BWST has given a commitment to the BVCG that they will postpone the aerial drop at least until the Court can address this.  Hopes are to get some directions soon from the Court and a hearing date in July

Media release from the Brook Valley Community Group  

….”…. We think what we are doing has significance well beyond The Brook, in Nelson.

We started out simply wanting to prevent the aerial drop of 26.5 tonnes of brodifacoum poison bait pellets into our watershed. It’s a long story not easily summarized. They think it’s necessary, we think it’s a bad idea. We are going to win. Our lawyer is Sue Grey and she is just brilliant.

Just recently, Nick Smith thought it a good idea to trample over seven hundred years of law, back to and including Magna Carta, and pass a new regulation amending the Resource Management Act permitting this proposed poison drop and removing all local input into the decision-making. This affects you, wherever you are, and he can’t be allowed to get away with it. You might not care too much about our Brook, but we do, and we can be relied upon to put a stop to what is proposed here.

When it comes to the broader issue, however, we want you to come to the party. It’ll be you next if we don’t stop this crazy erosion of our democratic processes right now. We are happy to go into detail. We are busy, remember.

If you want to help us, please feel to donate as much money as you like. Dig in. We are responsible people (why else would be be doing this?) and our accounting is robust. Contact us at brookvalleygroup@gmail.com.

Here are our account details:

Brook Valley Com Group No.2 A/c 03-1354-0426599-00.
Ref:StopTheDrop

We invite people to register to offer their expertise - e.g. wildlife management, with interpreting regional plans, referring other cases, offering admin/IT support and so forth.

The significance and necessity to stop this drop and the thinking behind it can hardly be exaggerated…”..

Talking the minister for the environment to court is a big issue that may affect many other regional towns in New Zealand, as dousing the remaining native bush with toxic posionis like Brodifacoum is of conern to many people around the country not just in Nelson.  What comes from this court case. this challenge,  may have an affect on the whole of New Zealand

The Environmental Minister has already said he will oppose this and we all know that the government has a lot of money to oppose with – so the Community Group is asking for as much financial support as possible to fight this case in the highest court of the land. 

Brodifacoum is made out to be harmless to non targeted species, but thats not true, it is part of the mis-inforamtion and spin that surrounds the need for such poison.  Brodifacoum is a seriously dangerous indiscriminant killer and has been proven in various scientific studies that can be found here, here and  here

Breaking news - 4th July 2017 

..."...The "Stop the Drop" Brook Valley High Court challenge to the legality of the Resource Management (Exemption) Regulations 2017 has been set down for a hearing at the High Court Wellington on Thursday 27 July 2017...."....