The Star: January 17, 2019

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22 Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi Thursday January 17 2019 Our People The Star Peter Richardson Lawyer devoted to saving the planet Peter Richardson splits his time between taking bottling companies to the High Court with Aotearoa Water Action and work at his legal firm, Linwood Law. He talks to Julia Evans about his life of activism How long have you been involved in activism? It started back when I was at uni, which was about 35 years ago. I was involved in the Springbok tour protests at that time, I also got involved in some other stuff. But it sort of slowed when I settled down and had family and all that sort of thing. I concentrated on my career and my family more. I had been a Green Party member for quite a while anyway and I got a little bit involved more when the genetic engineering issue came up because I was strongly anti- GE. So I got back into the Green Party with that. It was the water issue that really sort of got me involved again in Green Party politics and activism because I felt so strongly about what was going on with the water. How did that lead to you helping start Aotearoa Water Action? It came about because I was concerned about the water issue, I offered to help with the Bung the Bore campaign, which was going on in Ashburton. So I did a little bit of work with Jen Branje and the people in Ashburton. It was good to help them with that. Because I’d been involved in that, when Cloud Ocean and the other company, Rapaki Natural Resources made their applications for consents in Christchurch, it sort of came across my desk as well. People who were involved in Bung the Bore People got in touch with me, so we got a group together to investigate those consents and the process by which they were issued. We determined and felt they had been issued unlawfully so we decided to challenge them. I always had a little bit of concern with Bung the Bore campaign that even though they had a really strong case and they were well organised, the problem was to bring legal proceedings, it would have cost them a whole lot more money than they actually had. So that’s why they couldn’t bring legal proceedings at the end of the day. However, because the council held that consent they were able to apply political pressure in the local body elections. They kicked out most of the council and they kicked out the mayor. But we’re dealing with private companies, so we have to bring legal proceedings. I was reasonably confident given the size of Christchurch and ACTIVIST: Christchurch lawyer Peter Richardson relaxing in his garden. given my gut feeling that people actually cared about the issue, we would raise the money to be able to bring proceedings. We raised enough so we could at least file the proceedings. Where are the proceedings at? The proceedings are to challenge the process by which the consents were granted to the bottling companies. We had a preliminary hearing just before Christmas, which was to consider an argument by the bottling companies and Environment Canterbury that they didn’t in fact require consents to begin with and could rely on the old industrial use consents. We won that hearing and so now we go on to fight the main hearing, which will be held probably around the middle of this year. Have you been involved in any protests that got out of hand? I was quite involved in the 1981 Springbok tour and I was in Auckland. The group I was in was on the front line of some of those demonstrations around Eden Park. It was pretty hairy although I wasn’t involved in the riots because we were in a different part of the area. I’ve been involved in a few protests that have ended up with arrests. Up at Waitangi as well. I had a lot of years off being actively involved in those sort of causes. But as I’ve got older and become more concerned about the way the world’s going now, I’ve got back into it. What motivates you? I’m motivated by a little bit of outrage. It isn’t really a healthy one, but it’s an emotion I feel sometimes when I see some of the injustices that are happening around the world. In particular with exploitation of resources and communities and ecosystems being put at risk just through greed. That really sparks a response from me. I think most people would probably feel that they would like to do something about it. Because I’m reasonably well set-up financially and I’m not struggling. My kids have all left home and I don’t have the economic struggles like a lot of people do, just to pay the mortgage and put food on the table. I can do something positive and help change it. Why do you think water is such a big issue, particularly for people in Christchurch? It’s a big issue for people in general because without it, we can’t survive. It’s one of the basic necessities of life, it’s fundamental to survival on the planet. It’s also fundamental to people’s well-being to have clean water and access to clean drinking water and water for their needs. It’s not just having water, it’s having water that is pure because water carries a lot of life force, consciousness, it carries all sorts of things. It’s not just water. I have a slightly mystical view on that, but that’s fine. I think it’s just absolutely vitally important that we protect the water, it just breaks my heart to see rivers not running to the sea and water being shipped out of the country overseas in plastic bottles. How did you feel when you heard of city councillor Aaron Keown’s plan to bottle and sell the city’s water? I don’t want to be critical of people, but it’s probably symptomatic of the problem. People tend to treat everything as a commodity to be exploited, which is understandable under the system. We need to be thinking in a more holistic way as to how we actually organise ourselves as a society. We need to be looking generations ahead at quality of life rather than shortterm financial gain, get-richquick schemes. Unfortunately it’s the way the economy has gone in the last few years. Unfortunately we exploit resources for shortterm gain and forget about the economic value, as well as environmental and social consequences. As a child, did you imagine yourself becoming a lawyer? No, absolutely not. Basically my dad was a lawyer in Hamilton. He had his own legal firm and then he became a district court judge, eventually. I knew I’d be okay at it. Basically it was for a want of something better to do. It was probably just an easy option for me, I would probably have been better off doing something else. It has given me the opportunity to acquire some skills that have been helpful to me. But because the water is quite a technical area of the law, our barrister drives the proceedings. We set the ball in motion and it wasn’t just me by any means, we have fantastic people in our group who have been involved right from the beginning. Any particularly memorable cases? I haven’t done a lot of court work, I did a little bit when I was working in Dunedin. We’ve had good wins, but none of them really come to mind. I do property and commercial law now, I did do criminal law for a little bit but ended up on a different path. Did you grow up in Christchurch? No, I grew up in Hamilton and then I went to university in Auckland. Then I lived in Dunedin for seven years and now Christchurch for 23. Always in the northern suburbs, Papanui, Redwood and now Mairehau with my wife. I’ve had three boys who grew up in Christchurch. One’s finishing a PhD in America, one’s a project manager in Christchurch, but he’s also doing some academic work and the youngest is an aspiring actor in Auckland. They’ve all done their own things and good on them. What do you on a day off? I used to be really keen on sport – multi-sport, kayaking, running. I was a really keen runner, mostly off-road running. Biking too, I still do mountain biking a bit, mostly to and from work now. I really like to go tramping. Usually, if I’ve got a chance, I like to get up tramping on the hills. I like to go to the beach to go swimming and I like my gardening. I’ve got quite a reasonable-sized vegetable garden, so I really like organic gardening. Did you get away over Christmas? Just up to Hamilton to see my mother, she’s 79. My youngest boy, who lives in Auckland, came and had Christmas with us too.
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