There are two kinds of browning underway in the Far North currently. There is the drought – no serious rain since November. And then there is the Mayor of the Far North District Council, Wayne Brown. Both of them are extremely bad news for the rivers and people of the north.

How much better would our books be if we had invested a good proportion of the returns from the Maui gas field in a Gas Fund, whose dividends would now be helping our chronic current account deficit and budget deficit. Norway turned a good chunk its North Sea oil, its natural capital, into financial capital in the form of the giant half trillion dollar Norway Pension Fund. While NZ and the UK simply consumed our mineral resources and now have nothing to show for it except a few mothballed methanex Think Big plants.

The Taieri River, and Otago in general, has a particular problem of old mining rights to water. These deemed rights are not subject to normal RMA provisions so can’t be scaled back as the river flows drop – the only control is a complete stop under a Water Shortage Direction. These mining rights continue until 2021 – they should be turned into RMA rights now so that they can be managed properly.