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The Star Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi
Thursday March 16 2017 25
have seen the decline in the river
water since the dairy industry
got well paid from the price of
milk solids. This river needs to
be saved now, not by 2040 – it
will be long gone by then.
ECan, do your work properly
or move on from the next election
and get someone in there
with the guts to turn the sprinklers
off and save our rivers.
I had to inform the agency
that it was to be sorted, otherwise
was going to the police to
have fraud charges laid (theft
by deception). Until then I was
unaware that, according to the
agency, they had gone back to
the client who refused to pay
more even though the truck
required a class four license. I
was paid back pay by the agency
but lost the work.
Second incident was a guy of
63. He was told by Work and Income
to come to Christchurch.
Like me, he had a truck licence
from years ago, but like me he
had never used a Road Ranger
gearbox. He was applying for
jobs left right and centre either
cooking or truck driving. He
was called into try for a truck
job but was told after two hours
of training to go.
A week later while labouring
on a job, a truck showed up
from that company with a Filipino
driving. For the Filipino to
have just arrived and be driving
meant it was already in process
when they went through the
charade of seeing if a Kiwi could
do the job.
The third incident involved
a young fellow living in his car
waiting for a job to start, who
went to Central Otago to pick
fruit. He was lined up with all
these other Kiwis when all these
foreign backpackers walked past
and got the jobs ahead of the
Kiwis.
Fourth incident was a
64-year-old who went for a job
only to be told he wouldn’t get it
because he wanted to do the job
properly.
They didn’t want people
who wanted to do the job properly,
but just someone to do the
job.
Barry Rutter – In short,
what a load of rubbish! There’s
still heaps of painter jobs
around, check out Trade Me
jobs. I made three phone calls
and those that I called all pay
well above minimum wage.
Also, at the end of the day, any
painter getting $43 an hour is
just out right greedy.
I own a small business that
employs up to six staff (no migrant
workers) and none of my
staff get those rates. Personally,
I only get paid $18 per hour,
and yes, I have three kids and a
mortgage just like many other
workers.
So to Mr Creagh . . . Stop being
greedy and get up with the
times, high pay rates were never
going to last forever and it is not
due just to migrant workers.
Holly Traxler-Puddle,
of Avonhead, reacts to
an article in The Star
about ECan investigating
measures to protect the
Selwyn River. In the article,
Selwyn Waihora Zone
Committee chairman Allen
Lim said about 15-20 per
cent of the river’s low
flows could be attributed
to irrigation
What a bunch of hooey! The
Selwyn River is dead because of
the irrigation in the area – certainly
not the pittance of 15-20
per cent as stated by Allen Lim.
Where is he getting his information
from?
If you are from this area, you
Selwyn Waihora Zone
Committee chairman Allen
Lim responds:
The 15-20 per cent figure I
mentioned, referring to the relative
impact of irrigation compared
with other factors, comes
from the scientific assessment
made for the Selwyn Waihora
water plan, which became operative
last year. It represents the
average reduction in Waihora
spring-fed streams (not just
Selwyn) caused by cumulative
irrigation takes.
Climate played a big part in
the current situation. There are
examples of other rivers and
lakes that have gone dry, or are
at record lows, but are not subject
to irrigation takes, such as
Lake Lyndon in Porters Pass.
To deny that the lack of
rainfall for the last three winters
has nothing to do with the river
going dry and Lake Lyndon at
record lows is like saying CO2 is
not a greenhouse gas and there
is no climate change.
Full irrigation restrictions apply
to all takes from the Selwyn
River. Many groundwater takes
are on partial restriction and all
deep groundwater takes have
restrictions on their annual
volumes. This has been the case
since November 2015. We need
to consider all factors and not
close our mind to any. To this
end, in our last meeting, the
Selwyn Waihora Zone Committee
resolved to put the near river
augmentation project for the
Selwyn River up for funding. We
want to have the Selwyn swimmable
long before 2040. Again, I
would like to encourage anyone
with a bit of energy to channel it
and help us manage the water.
•Debate over the closing time
of Selwyn bars, page 26
Clinical mental health
services struggling
LAST WEEK,
the organisation
responsible for
delivering clinical
mental health
services in our area,
the Canterbury District Health
Board, came to Parliament to
give its annual report.
This did not make for pretty
reading.
The health select committee
heard that there are simply
not enough beds for the people
requiring them at Hillmorton.
As a result of this, some patients
have had to be moved to
other facilities at night.
The adult acute inpatient
service has been seeing up to 80
or 85 inpatients at a time, but
only has 64 beds. This means that
instead of being able to stay in
for their treatment, patients are
being shuffled off to other organisations
for the night and brought
back to Hillmorton each day.
The committee also heard
that the health board is increasingly
worried about the 18, 19,
20-year-old age group.
Those were the children who
were moving from primary
school to secondary school in
2011. They noted a significant
increase in a range of different
social agencies involved in the
lives of this age group, including
police and justice.
There is no doubt that our
mental health workers in Canterbury
are under immense pressure.
In January, the health board
said that they’re seeing about 700
more adults and 300 more children
each month than they were
before the quakes.
The number of nurses working
in specialist mental health services
has increased by about 10 per
cent since 2012, but the number
of doctors and senior doctors has
stayed the same,in spite of the
unprecedented increase in need
since February 2011.
The National Government has
let Canterbury down on mental
health.
In spite of an indisputable need
for services post-quake, they
have continued to fund us under
a “business as usual” model.
The small one-off funding
injections the Government has
delivered have not even begun to
scratch the surface of the problem.
The current situation is unsafe
and unacceptable for the workforce.
It is not good enough for
the patients and it is damaging
for our wider communities. National
is putting everyone at risk.
•Megan Woods is Labour’s
Canterbury spokeswoman