Andrew von Dadelszen Former Regional Councillor

The news for the last two weeks has been dominated by the stranding of the Rena on Astrolabe Reef. I was fortunate enough to witness the stranding on the morning of this event, when I accompanied the Sunlive news crew in a one hour flight over the stricken ship.

As soon as I saw how far up onto the reef the Rena had run I knew this ship was going nowhere any time soon. Believe me, there are still no easy answers for this disaster and we can expect disastrous environmental effects for months, if not years, to come.

Directly after my flight I personally phoned both Simon Bridges, our local MP and Hon Dr Nick Smith, the Minister for the Environment. I can assure you the government understood the implications and environmental risks and I was assured that an emergency recovery plan had already been enacted.

It annoys me to listen to uninformed chatter about inaction and I find it deplorable that certain parties were (and are still) trying to get political gain out of this tragedy. My only criticism would be the early paralysis on keeping the public properly briefed on the facts. The media are always willing to sensationalise matters, but Maritime NZ now is supplying very good regular updates on their website www.maritimenz.org.nz and as usual Sunlive is also ahead of the pack.

If you have a view on these or any other local government issues, I invite you to email me.

Email: andrew@vond.co.nz