The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has released two reports on water quality; the first is her review of the Government’s policy, and the second updates their previous work on land use change in New Zealand. The first report chimes with the findings of our own review from last year, particularly that Government needs to clarify what it means to ‘maintain or improve’ our fresh water. You’d think that was pretty straightforward, but there are lots of confusing elements in the way the policy is currently worded. The second report shows that intensification of farming has continued around the country, and in some areas has even accelerated – particularly in the Upper Waikato where the 2020 projections of land use change were surpassed by 2012. The central question her work raises is how can we maintain or improve water quality in Aotearoa New Zealand while farming continues to intensify across the country?
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