Greens says all rivers must be swimmable; Fed Farmers says that would shut down economy; Joyce says Opposition policy 'cartoon-like'; Your view?

The Green Party launched its election policy on rivers and lakes, including setting a national standard that they are all safe for swimming. Federated Farmers said the policy would shut down the economy.

Green Co-Leader Russel Norman delivered a speech in Hamilton over the weekend unveiling its rivers and beaches policy for the election.

A Green Government would establish a protected rivers network with similar protections to those for national parks and reserves. Irrigation, dams and pollution would not be allowed on protected rivers.

It would also strengthen the recently announced National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management to include changes recommended by the New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society. "The changes will ensure that no water body in New Zealand is allowed to degrade further," Norman said.

A National Environmental Standard would be set requiring councils to ensure rivers and lakes were clean enough for swimming. The standard would also set maximum levels for nitrogen, phosphorus, zinc, cadmium and other contaminants, and set minimum levels for clarity, dissolved oxygen, invertebrates, and other indicators of river health.

"The Green Party has a vision for New Zealand where families can head down to their local swimming hole or beach and jump right in the water without worrying about getting sick. That is why the Green Party’s top environmental election priority is to make New Zealand rivers and beaches clean enough for swimming," Norman said.

It would also implement a National Environmental Standard for water flows and levels in rivers, which would set a threshold for the amount of water to be taken from rivers for industry and farming.

"It will make sure that there is enough water left for the ecosystem to thrive and for people to use the river safely," he said.

Norman said intensive dairying was the driving force behind the deterioration of waterways, with two thirds of monitored swimming sites deemed unsafe for swimming and a third of lakes considered unhealthy. He said half a million more dairy cows had been added to the national herd since 2008, adding the same amount of waste as an extra seven million people. Fertiliser use had risen 20% from 2009 to 2012, he said.

A Green Government would also not allow any new dams on wild rivers.

Policy 'anti-everything'

Amy Adams said the Green announcement was part of its "anti-jobs, anti-growth, stop-everything" manifesto.

"Approaching improvement through blanket bans and requirements for every drainage ditch across New Zealand to be maintained at a swimming pool standard just shows that the Greens have once again confirmed they are the anti-growth party, by pursuing polices that would hurt households and damage the creation of new jobs across regional New Zealand for little real gain," she said.

"The Government will let communities make the call about whether particular rivers and lakes should be suitable for swimming all the time, rather than be dictated to by politicians in Wellington."

Adams said the highest level of protection had already been granted to 15 "iconic" waterways through water conservation orders that had been described as creating a national park system for water.

Federated Farmers said the Green policy would only end up being implemented in rural areas.

"It will let off the hook some of our most polluted waterways, like Wellington’s Waiwhetu Stream and Christchurch’s Avon, yet insist on higher standards for our rural streams and rivers. This is cynical lip service to comprehensively addressing water quality," said Federated Farmers Environment spokesman Ian Mackenzie.

Mackenzie questioned the oft-repeated claim that more than 60% of monitored rivers and lakes were not safe for swimming, saying more than half the monitored sites were within 2 kilometres of urban areas and 90% were within 10 kilometres of urban areas.

He called on the Greens to support the Government's National Policy Statement.

"The important thing about having minimum standards for water is that the Government has resisted any attempt to have them set at a level, which would shut down the economy," Mackenzie said.

Policy would 'hike food prices'

Irrigation New Zealand CEO Andrew Curtis said the Green policy was unrealistic and he was concerned about the economic and social impacts of the policy.

He agreed that pristine rivers should not be dammed and dams should be located 'off-river'.

“Without water storage we would have to explore other expensive options to cope with future population growth. These might include implementing intense food price hikes; importing foreign fresh produce and building desalination plants," he said.

“The reality is that it is unrealistic and prohibitively expensive to have swimmable rivers everywhere – particularly in towns and cities where water quality is by far the worst."

'Cartoon-like'

Meanwhile, Labour Energy Spokesman David Shearer detailed Labour's policy supporting offshore oil drilling in an interview on 3 News' The Nation. He also suggested a 5% royalty to be directed to the regions.

"What we want to see is a regime very much like in Norway, a Norwegian model where there is good processes of approval, there’s tight regulations, we have a regime for making sure that that money is used well and at the same time we try and make sure our transition to renewables goes on in pace because at the end of the day fossil fuels are out," Shearer said.

Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce said regional New Zealand faced a bleak future if there was a Labour/Green/Mana/Internet Government.

"A number of election policies released in the last couple of days show that the regions would be in for a dramatic and long term slowdown if there was to be a change in Government after September 20,” Joyce said.

"Cartoon-like policies from the Greens and the Internet Mana Party against fresh water usage and oil and gas exploration and in favour of big new carbon taxes show how little they understand what drives most jobs and incomes in regional New Zealand," he said.

NZ First transport policy

New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters announced his Government would develop a Railways of National Importance (RONI) policy, including the restoration of the Gisborne-Napier line, the electrification of the Auckland suburban rail network south to Pukekohe, the extension of the Wellington suburban rail network to Levin and into the Wairarapa, and the creation of an express commuter service from Christchurch to Rangiora.

The RONI policy would be paid for by diverting money from the Government's RONS (Roads of National Significance) programme.

(Updated with NZ First transport policy)

I'll keep updating this through the day.