Trop de Paris!
OPINION: Your old mate's ear has been chewed off recently by farmers voicing their displeasure with the National Party, particularly relating to how they're treating their farmer base.
Apparently the iwi groups extracted some serious koha from both the energy companies in compensation for the historical loss of – among other things – rock art drawings and mahinga kai spots (fish gathering) when the river was dammed back in the 1930s to set up hydro power.
All well and good, but no one will reveal just exactly how much was paid – rumoured to be well in the multi-millions.
Of course, the heavy price coughed up won’t worry the electricity generators, they will just pass the cost on to hard-pressed power consumers.
The question is how much is the Treaty costing us in electricity prices?
