Followed you down to the bottom here mate - was in the car just past Taupo heading South when Nick Smith came on the radio to talk about the new water standards NZ was looking to adopt ............. when was that - last time National was in Government I suppose.
Those 'water standards' he was talking about were the European Standards which were infinitely worse than what we already had - they included a percentage of water you could look at, but not touch, water you could paddle in ........ and so forth to water in which you could fully immerse, to finally .................... water you could drink.
And there wasn't much of that.
To create wealth NZ Standards have been declining across the board - cleanliness and wealth aren't compatible - and the first thing to show the effects of our filthy habits is water - we dump 1080 in the stuff for God's sake.
We will sell our 'clean water' because no one else has any, and it will create wealth - then what is left will become an even more precious commodity and just like our fish, meat, timber, vegetables - all the stuff we grow here in NZ - we will pay through the nose for it.
There are those who want 'to clean up our act', there are equally those who want more wealth - but from my point of view the former has to eventually win as we will not be able to live in a world where wealth takes precedence.
Don't hold your breath waiting mate, when American banks take out insurance against financial loss, then ensure that loss occurs, when 70 million people voted Trump, when Nations either don't care or believe climate change is a myth and chop down the Amazon Forest to create wealth, what does that point to.
A failed experiment - only humans do this to a planet, we're not going to be here long ............
Long live wealth