Comment: Cows destroy dam conspiracy theory

David Cunliffe once sacked the Hawke's Bay District Health Board, perhaps the same could happen with the Hawke's Bay Regional Council. Photo / Duncan Brown

It was no problem being told the leader of the opposition, David Cunliffe, would be 10 minutes late to a press conference on the banks of the Tukituki River on Thursday. It was a beautiful day beside Black Bridge and TV3 cameraman and Hastings District mayoral candidate Simon Nixon had excellent anecdotes.

Mr Cunliffe was first out of the cavalcade and immediately apologised for making us wait.

Mr Cunliffe, Labour's spokesman on regional development, voiced his concern over the dam and the associated inquiry.

He said the process to date was "mysterious, dogged by coincidences, lacking in transparency and of grave concern to anybody who believes in due process".

His sincerity is clear, but so is the man who personally has the most to lose should the dam go ahead.

Dam site farmer Craig Preston contacted me, concerned that Mr Cunliffe had inferred he was part of a conspiracy to block access.

Mr Preston showed me why he had refused entry to the dam site. He is determined to lift his calving percentage and calves his cows in several mobs along the farm's central access road. As the calves drop, they can be easily moved to a neighbouring well-grassed paddock with mum. There is nowhere else on the farm that borders all paddocks and to drive through it is an electric-fence storm of afterbirth anxiety.

So dam site access is denied until after inquiry submissions are due. There is no conspiracy.

While the Hawke's Bay Regional Council owns 59.7 hectares of the dam site, access - if not the whole project - is reliant on Mr Preston's good will.

I am forever stumbling on good will. No matter how big the idiot in our district courts' docks, their best interests are protected. Our schools are governed by volunteers and Hawke's Bay District Health Board (DHB) members are paid a pittance considering it is the largest regional employer and spends more than $1 million a day.

DHB chairman Kevin Atkinson's enthusiasm and continuing good will was obvious at the Grey Power Hastings and Districts' Meet the Candidates meeting on Friday. Afterwards I risked a great deal of goodwill towards myself from candidate Jacoby Poulain. I noticed she had put on a bit of weight and took the large liberty of asking if she was pregnant.

Hallelujah.

I asked Mr Cunliffe if he had followed our DHB. When Minister of Health in 2008 he sacked it for under performing and failing to properly manage conflicts of interests. Today it thrives, financially and in health outcomes.

The National government sacked all Canterbury Regional councillors, replacing them with commissioners in 2010, because of dysfunction regarding water policies.

Depending on who is elected to our regional council this weekend, it could happen here.