Random Impertinent Questions about the Dodgy Socialist Dam
The dodgy socialist dam in Central Hawkes Bay looks like it is going to fall over with the council taking several weeks to decide whether to proceed or not.
The Board of Inquiry didn’t buy into the HB Regional Council’s now discredited model that said they only needed to limit one nutrient.
This leads to a series of questions:
- Was the HBRC aware that their decisions were being made based on a model that had not been adequately peer reviewed and would not have stood up in the environment court because it was not released to other submitters?
- Why did the HBRC think it was so special it could turn a river toxic by setting N levels at Toxicity?
- Why did the HBRC think it was so special it could only limit P, not N, while every other river in the country has to limit both?
- Why didn’t the HBRC listen to staff who dissented on the TRIM model? Read more »

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.
They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.
He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.
Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.
To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.