Grey Lynn 2030 Transition Community

Sunday 31 July

7.30pm

Grey Lynn Community Centre

$2 entry

A fantastic award-winning doco about natural gas extraction in the states and “fracking” a highly risky new method of extracting gas that allows companies to extract far more gas than before.  It has local significance as Todd Energy have been surveying possible drilling sites in our very own Taranaki earlier this year and will be using this fracking extraction method.

Green Screens coming up – all on the last Sunday of the month at 7.30pm

Food matters- August 28th
Black Gold-Sept 25th
The Power of Community- Oct 30th
Heart and Soil- November 27th

The impact of raising energy costs is not going to go away. Creating an energy focus group within Grey Lynn 2030 will provide a space to discuss ideas, learn from experts, create and implement projects, be proactive and inspire our community to join in.

First meeting to get an energy focus group underway.  Find out more here

All Welcome

7.30pm Thursday 23 June in the Oval Room at the Grey Lynn Community Centre

Contact Chris Olson at:             chris.letter.box@gmail.com Ph 021 2290329

As a transition community we are strongly opposed removal of any conservation land from Schedule 4 protection to enable exploration or mining to take place.   We do not therefore support the government’s proposal to remove the following areas from Schedule 4:

• The Inangahua sector of Paparoa National Park
• The Otahu Ecological Area in the Coromandel
• Parakawai Geological Area in the Coromandel
• The additional seven areas in the Coromandel Peninsula totalling 2,574 hectares
• 705 hectares of the Te Ahumata Plateau are on Great Barrier Island

Moreover, we support the addition to the existing Schedule of the 12,400ha of conservation land that now qualifies to be in Schedule 4.   We believe that marine reserves, national park additions, scientific, scenic and nature reserves should automatically be added to Schedule 4 once gazetted to ensure ongoing protection from mining and exploration activities.

We also oppose the  intended mineral survey of vast swathes of additional land including Northland and Stewart Island (Rakiura National Park), Mt Aspiring National Park, areas of Northland including Waipoua Kauri Forest and inland Nelson as depicted on the MED website.

We believe that any mining in conservation areas will be damaging to New Zealand’s clean and green international reputation which underpins billions of dollars of economic value and countless jobs in tourism, agriculture and other sectors.  This reputation would be harmed irreparably by allowing mining in our conservation estate.   Mining is not a sustainable activity and we believe that the long term economic value of our green image outweighs the short term ecomonic benefit of mining.

The quality and pure reputation that NZ enjoys has built up over many decades with significant investment is essential for New Zealand’s well being.  This reputation offers the best advantage and opportunity for enhancing our economic strength rather than the highly inefficient extractive industry that cannot serve New Zealand in a world moving towards clean and renewable technology and industry.

We call on the government to follow an economic vision for the 21st century that plays to the strength of our clean and green reputation and meets the challenges of climate change.  This includes abandoning all plans to remove conservation land from Schedule Four or allow mining therein, and committing to a 40% by 2020 emissions reduction target.

Grey Lynn 2030 Steering Committee

With only 2 days remaining in the AECT election a disappointing 14.65% of eligible voters have so far returned postal ballots to decide the 5 trustees of the Trust. At the same time in the 2003 election the turnout was only slightly better at 17.5%.  Independent Candidate Pippa Coom, a lawyer who previously worked at Vector, visited nearly the whole Trust area over the course of her campaign and found a high level of ignorance about the Trust and very little awareness about the election.

 ”Voter apathy is a real concern but can be explained by the fact most people do not realise they are beneficiaries of a Trust which this year received income of $98m and has an asset valued at approximately $1.5bn. The current Trustees have clearly not being doing enough to communicate their role and to justify excessive Trustee fees” said Ms Coom

 ”The election has given me the opportunity to attend community meetings all over Manukau City. It has convinced me that you can’t beat face to face communication with the beneficiaries of the Trust.  I have been overwhelmed by the warm reception I have received and if elected will be heading straight back to South Auckland to start a conversation about what the community could best do with the $98m dividend”

 “I feel very fortunate to have been made redundant from Vector at the beginning of the year. Without that push I would not have thrown myself into working for the transition town movement through Grey Lynn 2030 nor with the support of Grey Lynn 2030 pursued the idea to run as an independent candidate with aim of putting community into the Trust and setting a sustainable direction for Vector.” said Ms Coom

 Suzanne Kendrick, steering committee member has really seen Grey Lynn 2030 grow from strength to strength in the first year of the group. “In only one year we have achieved so much through practical action in our community. We now have about 800 supporters on our contact list. The Grey Lynn Farmers Market is one of our biggest success stories. From one of our monthly meetings volunteers got together to make it happen and after 8 weeks of being open, the market is hugely popular for locals and is already running at a profit.  We have other groups focusing on stream restoration, minimising waste, community gardens, traffic calming – all through a shared positive vision to make our community sustainable.” said Ms Kendrick 

“If Pippa gets elected – and if the feedback I am receiving is anything to go by it is looking very likely that she will become a new trustee – it will be fantastic way to celebrate Grey Lynn 2030′s first anniversary. It will really show what can be achieved in the community when a group of people decide to make an idea a reality – after all it all comes back to us as a community, we have to appreciate how much power is in the hands of the community if people get into action” said Ms Kendrick

Ends

Media Release
Grey Lynn 2030: Transition Community

Immediate release
Thursday 17 September 2009 

 Community candidate challenges Vector’s sustainability path

 A corporate lawyer with experience working for regulated industries will stand as an independent candidate in this year’s election for trustees to the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust.

Pippa Coom, who has worked for Vector Ltd, which is majority owned by the Trust, is also the first member of the Transition Town movement to stand for public office. 

“I have the skills and experience to be an effective trustee. As the only independent community candidate I am committed to maintaining the Auckland electricity assets of Vector in community ownership and ensuring that Vector is in the best position to respond to the current environmental challenges ” says  Ms Coom.

 Pippa Coom launched her campaign for election at the monthly meeting of Grey Lynn 2030:Transition Community, which is part of the international Transition Towns movement.

 Suzanne Kendrick, Grey Lynn 2030 steering committee member who is supporting Pippa’s campaign says “We are very pleased to support an independent community candidate for a community trust.

 “It is in the interests of the beneficiaries of the trust – all those with a power bill in greater Auckland, – that the trustees be a good representation of us all and bring a diversity of perspectives to the decisions the Trust makes”

 “Business as usual’ in today’s world is not an option as we transition to a low carbon economy and toward more benign methods of energy production, distribution and use. Pippa, through her background with the Transition movement will bring this vital, but currently missing, perspective to the Trust as a trustee” Ms Kendrick said

 The election for the five trustees is scheduled from 15 October by postal ballot, with polling day on 30 October.  

www.pippacoom.co.nz

New Zealand is hugely reliant on the rest of the world for its fuels. Technological advancements such as battery operated cars provide us with the opportunity to be more self-reliant. However, the debate about what sort of alternative approaches to generating electricity has not yet
occurred. We need a debate about the appropriate mix of new forms of electricity generation (wind, solar). We also need a debate on whether nuclear energy is an acceptable source of energy for us. While controversial, the pressures of climate change and need for clean energy is forcing other economies to increase reliance on nuclear energy – this is a debate that New
Zealand is still to have. New Zealand also has a large reserve of low quality coal, and we rely on future sequestration technology to enable us to fully exploit these sources. We need to consider the future of such technologies, and to explore what can be done to speed the emergence of
cost-effective sequestration technologies.
Chair: Rhema Vaithianathan
Senior Lecturer in Economics, The University of Auckland Buisness School
Rhema is a core contributor to the MPP degree.

Associate Professor Basil Sharp
Director of the Energy Centre at The University of Auckland Business School
Peter Neilson
CEO of the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development
and a former Cabinet Minister

Thursday 27 August
12.30 to 2pm
Women’s Federation Room, Old Government House
Cnr Princes Street & Waterloo Quadrant,
The University of Auckland

www.art.auckland.ac.nz/mpp