Groundswell took over about 70 centres nationwide - briefly and pretty peacefully - in last weekend’s Mother of All Protests. But the picture the media painted of who they really are and what they really want was confusing - and overlapping anger about the government and Covid-19 made the mix more murky.
Our concern is what is the consultation and exercises going on engaging with communities, including rural communities? And about what [the Natural and Built Environments Act] might look like, particularly the impact on our lives that this will have, Williams told Magic Talk s Rural Exchange over the weekend.
A draft of the Natural and Built Environments Act will be referred to a select committee in the middle of this year. But Williams says this does not give communities enough time to absorb, consider and submit on the contents of the Bill . As we all know from our regional or district plans around the country they re complex and they re interrelated and there s trade-offs and there s pros and cons to different approaches. So all those things need to explored in the context of what we do in our business world what our aspirations are in terms of our environment, our future generations, our social impacts, employment and jobs and wellbeing, and those are difficult conversations