Displaying 1 - 24 of 295 results.

Environment Minister Amy Adams today announced Government funding of $115,000 towards a project to improve regional council understanding of soil loss into water ways.

“Regional councils need better information to help them manage soil erosion and sediment build-up in our water ways. Most regions have monitoring programmes and collect data, but these have usually been developed in isolation,” Ms Adams says.

  • Amy Adams
  • Environment

Environment Minister Amy Adams today announced government funding of $190,000 for the West Coast Regional Council to trial two computer software tools which support good decision-making on water use.

“The West Coast Regional Council will trial the software tools using the Grey River catchment as a case study,” Ms Adams says.

“The applications illustrate the likely consequences of different options for water use and limits on a variety of important aspects of water management.

  • Amy Adams
  • Environment

Environment Minister Amy Adams has announced funding of $100,000 for a collaborative approach to fresh water modelling in the Wellington region.

The money was awarded to Greater Wellington Regional Council from the Government’s Community Environment Fund.

“There are so many different models available, each with its own strengths or shortcomings. This project will get all the modellers together to determine which is the most appropriate to use in specific circumstances or under specific conditions,” Ms Adams says.

  • Amy Adams
  • Environment

The Government will provide $150,000 to support the set-up of an e-planning system to enable efficient water allocation in Marlborough, Environment Minister Amy Adams announced today.

The funding was awarded to the Marlborough District Council from the Government’s Community Environment Fund.

“The e-planning tool will allow water users like farmers, viticulturists, horticulturists and industry to identify water demand for their property based on soil type, climate conditions and crop type,” Ms Adams says.

  • Amy Adams
  • Environment

Environment Minister Amy Adams today announced funding of $135,000 towards a project run by Waikato Regional Council to better understand and overcome the barriers farmers face in reducing contaminants running off their land into water ways.

“Achieving water quality limits and targets for fresh water in many areas depends on farmers changing management practices,” Ms Adams says.

  • Amy Adams
  • Environment

Environment Minister Amy Adams has announced funding of $125,000 to support an Otago Regional Council study to measure nitrogen leaching in the iconic Lakes catchments of Hawea, Wanaka and Wakatipu.

“The study will improve the prediction of nitrogen leaching from sheep and beef farms, which is not as well understood as dairy farming,” Ms Adams says.

  • Amy Adams
  • Environment

Environment Minister Amy Adams today announced government funding of $65,000 towards a Gisborne District Council project to identify spawning sites for native fish species in the region.

The money was awarded to the council from the Government’s Community Environment Fund.

“There are a number of different native freshwater fish species in the Gisborne region and the survival of some of these is threatened,” Ms Adams says.

  • Amy Adams
  • Environment

Communications and Information Technology Minister Amy Adams has today announced draft licencing rules for the use of television white space devices in New Zealand.

“Television white space offers opportunities for new ways to deliver wireless services such as broadband,” Ms Adams says.

“More efficient use of the radio spectrum, such as through the use of white space, will be increasingly important as new technologies continue to drive demand for wireless frequencies.”

  • Amy Adams
  • Communications and Information Technology

Environment Minister Amy Adams today announced funding of $80,000 for a Hawke’s Bay Regional Council project to develop clear criteria for assessing and identifying outstanding water bodies.

An outstanding water body is one that is exceptional in some way. It may be in relation to one particular feature or it may have a number of outstanding features, such as recreational, ecological or landscape features.

  • Amy Adams
  • Environment

Environment Minister Amy Adams today announced funding of $468,000 for a facility in Napier which turns construction, demolition and industrial waste into compost.

The funding has been awarded to BioRich from the Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund.

“This money will help BioRich expand its facility to accept waste streams such as bark, wool dust, paper towels, plasterboard and tannery waste,” Ms Adams says.

  • Amy Adams
  • Environment

Environment Minister Amy Adams today announced a new initiative which identifies and ranks priority sites for clean-up under the Government’s contaminated sites remediation programme.

Ms Adams also announced immediate funding of nearly $2.5 million to remediate two of the contaminated sites identified as a priority.

Identification and management of contaminated sites are the responsibility of local and regional councils, and remediation is generally at the cost of the landowner.

  • Amy Adams
  • Environment

Environment Minister Amy Adams has announced funding of $4 million to Wellington manufacturer Flight Plastics to build a recycling facility that will turn plastic waste into food-safe packaging.

The money was awarded to Flight Plastics from the Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund.

About 17,000 tonnes of polyethylene terephthalate plastic (PET) plastics are consumed in New Zealand each year. This type of plastic is commonly used to make soft drink bottles, and fruit and vegetable punnets.

  • Amy Adams
  • Environment

Environment Minister Amy Adams has announced funding of $150,000 to support the expansion of a community-based recycling operation in Porirua.

The money was awarded to Mana Recovery Trust from the Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund.

Mana Recovery Trust will significantly expand its current operations through the construction of a purpose-built facility to sort and recycle packaging waste from businesses across the lower North Island.

Waste materials targeted by the scheme include paper, plastic, cardboard and glass.

  • Amy Adams
  • Environment

Environment Minister Amy Adams today announced funding of $120,000 for a project run by Tasman District Council to control erosion and sediment going into waterways.

“Erosion and sediment control are a problem for our water ways, but Tasman District Council has identified there is little in the way of up-to-date research or information for landowners and regional councils who need to manage erosion and sedimentation in our rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands,” Ms Adams says.

  • Amy Adams
  • Environment

More than half a million households, businesses, schools and health centres are now able to connect to the Government’s Ultra-Fast Broadband network, which continues to rollout ahead of schedule.

Communications and Information Technology Minister Amy Adams today released the latest quarterly report on the Government’s Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) and Rural Broadband Initiatives (RBI).

The report shows the UFB programme is about 7 per cent ahead of schedule. Over the three months to 30 June 2014, a further 96,339 end users gained access to fibre

  • Amy Adams
  • Communications and Information Technology

Environment Minister Amy Adams has released a review into the effectiveness of the waste disposal levy, which makes recommendations to improve fairness in the way the levy is applied and to increase the amount of information available about waste and recycling in New Zealand.

The $10 per tonne waste disposal levy was introduced in 2009 under the Waste Minimisation Act (WMA) and applies to waste landfilled at defined facilities.

The Environment Minister is required to review the levy’s effectiveness every three years.

  • Amy Adams
  • Environment

Thank you Mark [Christie, President of Agcarm] for your introduction.

I firstly want to acknowledge the significant contribution members of Agcarm make to New Zealand.

As a farmer and a Minister, I know that the productivity of our land is critical to the wealth of our country and the ability to meet the aspirations of New Zealanders.

The products your members provide are a vital link in a supply chain that starts with our fertile land and ends with satisfied customers around the world.

  • Amy Adams
  • Environment

Communications and Information Technology Minister Amy Adams has welcomed the agreement by Crown Fibre Holdings and Chorus on the latest amendment to the companies’ Ultra-Fast Broadband contract.

Both parties have agreed to a change which would give Chorus the ability to bring forward funding in the 2015/16 financial year which would have been provided in 2017/18 and 2018/19.

  • Amy Adams
  • Communications and Information Technology

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and Environment Minister Amy Adams today announced the Government has agreed to a request by the Christchurch City Council for an accelerated district plan review process.

At present, Christchurch has two district plans – the Christchurch City Plan and the Banks Peninsula District Plan. Both plans were developed in the 1990s and have been amended incrementally since then.

However, the district plans were never designed to cope with the amount of repair and rebuild necessary to recover from the earthquakes.

  • Amy Adams
  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Environment
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

Good morning. It is a pleasure to be invited to speak at this year’s NetHui.

Can I begin by acknowledging InternetNZ for organising this event, and for their on-going work in ensuring that key issues affecting the development of our digital future continue to be prominently and actively debated.

In particular, I want to acknowledge InternetNZ’s ongoing work on:

  • Amy Adams
  • Communications and Information Technology

Environment Minister Amy Adams has today moved to correct incorrect and misleading comments made about the Government’s ground-breaking national freshwater standards.

The Government yesterday announced clear, robust national standards for freshwater that will make a significant improvement to the way freshwater is managed.

This means, for the first time, New Zealand’s rivers and lakes will have minimum requirements that must be achieved so the water quality is suitable for ecosystem and human health.

  • Amy Adams
  • Environment

Communications and Information Technology Minister Amy Adams has announced that the Korea, Australia and New Zealand (KANZ) Technology Summit will take place in Auckland next week.

KANZ is a trilateral Ministerial-led summit involving government, researchers and private sector representatives to discuss digital developments and explore opportunities for collaboration and new business.

  • Amy Adams
  • Communications and Information Technology

The Government has today announced clear, robust national standards for freshwater that will make a significant improvement to the way freshwater is managed.

Environment Minister Amy Adams and Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy say the changes announced today are a critical milestone in the Government’s drive to improve water quality.

“Ensuring an on-going and reliable supply of healthy water is one of the most important environmental and economic issues facing New Zealand today,” Ms Adams says.

  • Nathan Guy
  • Amy Adams
  • Primary Industries
  • Environment

Government-owned company Research and Educational Advanced Network New Zealand Ltd (REANNZ) has entered into a $65 million anchor tenancy contract with Hawaiki Cable Ltd for its proposed new international telecommunications cable, Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce and Communications and Information Technology Minister Amy Adams announced today.

The Government’s whole of contract contribution secures a 25-year anchor tenancy on the cable for REANNZ, which operates New Zealand’s high-performance research and education broadband network.

  • Amy Adams
  • Steven Joyce
  • Science and Innovation
  • Communications and Information Technology