On September 27, 2023, at a public pre-election meeting in Waimate, Miles Anderson, National candidate for Waitaki, was asked whether he supported the Waimate incinerator proposal. His response was no. On an earlier occasion, following the re-lodgement of SIRRL’s resource consent application, Anderson was asked whether he would submit against the proposal if the Waitaki electorate opposed it. His response was “Yes, it’s my job.”  However, in an Otago Daily...

South Island Resource Recovery Ltd (SIRRL) has emerged in the Canterbury quotient of the long-awaited Fast Track Approvals Bill list. You could reasonably predict that many in the long-suffering Waimate community will feel cheated and disgusted at the consideration of a gigantic rubbish-burning incinerator on precious farmland as critical infrastructure. For three years, the company that wants to build the huge ‘Project Kea’ waste-to-energy incinerator has publicly made...