Photo: Rod Peirce, co-chairperson, Friends of Beaumont Inc., Millers Flat.
PETITION being heard, 9th December 1998. The petition, asking for no more dams to be built on the Clutha River in the name of Chairperson Graeme Collins and of the Friends of Beaumont Inc, started in 1995 and was presented in March 1996 to Parliament, will be heard by the Transport and Environment Committee. Membership of the Committee is:
Hon Denis Marshall (National, Chairman)
Christine Fletcher (National)
Pete Hodgson (Labour)
Harry Duynhoven (Labour)
Owen Jenings (ACT)
Peter Brown (NZ First)
Jeanette Fitzsimons (Alliance - Green Party)
Gavan Herlihy (National)
Submissions should be addressed to: The Clerk, Transport and Environment Committee, Parliament Buildings, Wellington.
UPDATE 24TH March 1999.
Transalta, one of the two remaining bidders for the 40% stake of Contact was understood to be eager to include a clause in the purchase contract which would oblige them to sell off all the land presently in its property portfolio, that ECNZ purchased for the proposed Tuapeka Dam (now abandoned).
The successful bidder was Edison Mission Energy, of USA. The sale, for $1.2 billion for the 40% share apparently does not include a clause which requires to sell off the surplus land. The Minister in charge of Contact Energy, Dr Lockwood Smith considers that whether the land will be retained by Edison or sold off is "an operational matter" that is of no concern to the Government which does not have a policy of interfering with private companies.
It now remains to be seen whether the petition of 26,000 people and a Parliamentary Committee which unanimously agreed that the land must be sold off as a condition of sale by the purchaser (Edison), is worthless after all.
28th March 1999 UPDATE