Wednesday, 11 October 2023 15:55

Serious koha!

Written by The Hound

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OPINION: Your canine crusader understands big power companies Genesis and Meridian recently coughed up some major funding to local iwi groups, under the auspices of the Treaty of Waitangi, as part of the renewal applications for their resource consents in relation to the Waitaki river.

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?

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