I am a mother of five and a grandmother of nine and am deeply concerned about our children’s and grandchildren’s future. I trained as a nurse and have previously co-run a refuge for battered woman in Auckland.
I have over 30 years’ experience in children’s musical theatre (‘The Aunties’) entertaining and educating young children about the wonders of nature. I have performed in schools, pre-schools, and theatres throughout New Zealand with full-scale stage performances and educational shows – including a series of bilingual Maori legends. The Aunties was a family run business and I wore many hats including administrator, performer, and co-producer. I performed as Madame Salami in the ‘Aunties Alphabet’ TV series, Water Sense video (a water safety DVD for children) and ‘Ants in ya Pants’ (a movement and dance video for schools).
So, what has this got to do with politics and why would I want to be a candidate for the NZ Outdoors Party? When I uncovered the large-scale assault on NZ’s landscape with 1080 compound (sodium mono-fluoroacetate) I started looking for a political party that understood this threat to nature. Ecocide (destroying the Earth) is legally permitted in NZ. Putting poison onto landscapes and rivers shows a disconnection to the web of life and a lack of reverence towards Mother Earth. This madness also leads to tortuous deaths to hundreds of thousands of innocent animals. It is estimated that every year approximately 40,000 + deer die this way and fawns are left to die of starvation next to their dead and dying mothers!
I am passionate about stopping the use of 1080 insecticide!
As an animal lover I want the use of 1080 to end, as it causes prolonged and agonising deaths on animals including native birds, pests, deer, pigs, livestock, horses, and dogs. Most people are also not aware of the impact that this eco-toxin also has on bacteria, fungi, plants, nematodes, and invertebrates. The impact is far reaching with research showing that 50% of invertebrates are killed in every 1080 drop zone which is devastating as insects are vital to our ecosystem. 1080 diminishes nutrients in the soil and upsets the delicate balance for the survival of micro-organisms in the soil.
I believe the current approach is unsustainable and we need science-based programs such as self-resetting traps, targeted humane pest control, and the use of thermal drones to advise on predator concentrations.
Through the United Nations, New Zealand is signed up to the ‘Pest Free’ global agenda. I believe that this has stifled the possum meat and fur industry because animals cannot be sold if they are from an area where 1080 has been applied.
The public needs to know about the long-term negative health effects of sub-lethal doses of 1080 compound. It is a known neurotoxin, endocrine disruptor, and a mitochondrial interfering toxin. It affects the brain, immune, dental, endocrine, and reproductive systems in embryos, infants and young children and adults.
The World Health Organisation classifies 1080 as ‘extremely hazardous’ with no safe level of 1080 exposure to babies or prenatal exposure in the womb. The late Dr Scanlon in 2010 said that 1080 dust contaminated water and food sources, had been implicated in causing miscarriages, still births and congenital malformations to the children of pregnant Maori women following 1080 aerial drops in Whanganui in 2010.
Our current government’s research institute (Land Care Research) confirms that after years of applying 1080 to NZ’s environment that it is now well established in our food chain.
I am disappointed that the health impact is being ignored and imposed on us by the current government without our input or consent.
The NZ Outdoors Party is committed to our democracy, ending ecological destruction, and stopping inhumane cruelty to animals.
IT IS A HUMAN RIGHT TO LIVE IN A CLEAN ENVIRONMENT AND A HUMAN DUTY, TO NOT INFLICT TORTUROUS DEATHS ON ANIMALS!
