Public Meeting Launches the People's Inquiry

A hundred people turned up on a cold wet winter's night to support the launching of the People's Inquiry. The meeting unanimously supported the proposal to hold a People's Inquiry into the effects and impacts of the Aerial Spraying campaign in West Auckland 2002 - 2004. The terms of reference for the Inquiry were discussed and approved by the meeting, which was co-chaired by Hana Blackmore and Meriel Watts.The meeting also endorsed the work of the steering committee who are representatives from various local west Auckland groups opposed to the spraying. Meriel then announced the names of the 5 Commissioners who have agreed to hear the people's submissions.( Others were asked and wanted to come but couldnt due to work committments) The Commissioners will be
Professor Romy Quijano ( Phillipines), Professor Tom Kerns ( USA), Joanna Goven, (University of Canterbury, NZ), Del Wihongi ( Aotearoa/NZ) and Moana Jackson (Aotearoa/NZ). More about these independent experts later.
The People's Inquiry received a strong endorsement from the community of affected people.Already there is international interest in the Peoples Inquiry and its possible results.
Kia Kaha the People's Inquiry!

Who's Mongering Who?

Another quote from the TVNZ Sunday programme documentary ( July 3rd)from our Minister of Biosecurity, Hon Jim Sutton,( he is referring to Dr Hales): “ I wouldn't accuse Dr Hale of scaremongering but this whole area is an area where there is a lot of scaremongering. A lot of people proclaim that there are - ar ..ar hazards to people's health without producing any evidence that there is.”

Sutton keeps on talking about “scaremongering”. A “monger” is someone who sells or promotes something. Eg., a fishmonger sells fish, a warmonger sells a war ( with lies, but don't get me started) and a scaremonger promotes a state of fear.

But who had the budget to monger? Not those opposed to the Foray48B aerial spray! By contrast, the Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry have spent millions of taxpayers' dollars on mongering the "safety of Foray48B" by means of an extended saturation advertising campaign using radio, TV ads, full page colour ads in national and local papers, coloured letterbox leaflets,- that adds up to a lot of mongering. Yet the jolly-old hypochondriac, psychosomatic, psychogenically ill, scaremongered citizens annoyingly kept reporting symptoms of a variety of illnesses after spraydays.


And can you believe it, but a current MAF theory to explain reported cases of sickness after spraying, blames the "scaremongering' of those opposed to the spray, that would make people anxious, and when they are worried, they can "amplify vague sensations" and imagine their symptoms!!!

MAF seem to be in denial about the health effects and the potential long-term effects of spraying nearly 200,000 people repeatedly over two years, and are proposing bizarre explanations to try and invalidate people's experiences of the health impacts of the aerial spraying campaign.

Spray health effects are all in our minds, says Sutton.

Here is a transcript of part of the Sunday Programme of July 3rd. It wasn't in the official transcript on the TVNZ website, but the interviewer's voice sounds so astounded at Sutton's claim that maybe they changed the programme at the 11th hour.

Sunday Programme:( Jackie Marr)..” Are you saying it's psychosomatic- its all in their heads?”

Sutton “ - Well, you're saying that – I'm not saying that. I'm taking the expert advice I receive. As of now, - ar - the best expert advice available in the world – ar – to MAF and to me - is that Btk Spray does not cause - any significant sickness, but that - people who have a perception of risk – ar- can have their health ..ar.. directly affected by this- ar - perception. So we take moves – ar - to control that perception by moving those people out of range of the spray.”

Sunday Programme: “ Soo .. it's only their perception... that they are ill from the spray?”

Sutton: “.. can affect their health.”

Sunday Programme: “ If that's not....psychosomatic, then what is?!!”

Sutton: “ Well – ar ...er..uh.(lost for words) - I mean, you can call it what you like.”

This is the official line of MAF - we who got sick from this spray are to blame, we made ourselves sick by our own 'perceptions'!! Yeah right! When the spray made me sick after the Oct 23 2002 spray, I wasnt even worried about it. I was new to the area, and didn't have any preconceived views for or against the spray. It was only after I had recovered from the infected eyes,the headaches and the unusual sudden severe flu-like illness - which knocked me out for a few days - that I asked questions and started researching this Foray48B.
Notice that Jim Sutton calls it Btk spray - he should call it what it is Foray48B which has a lot of chemicals in it besides the Btk bacteria.
So just who is providing Sutton with " the best expert advice available in the world" ? Advice that trivialises and attempts to invalidate people's experiences of the health effects of this spray. Or is it more like he is getting the advice that best fits in with MAF's perceptions? More on this later...

The growing trend for People's Inquiries..

The People's Inquiry into the Aerial Spraying of Foray48B is part of a growing trend for civil society to hold People's Inquiries when the state fails in its duty to protect citizens or fails itself to uphold the laws that it expects the citizens to abide by ( eg, Human Rights).

Examples of People's Inquiries include a recently completed World Tribunal on Iraq

Australian Greens MP Kris Hanna has warned that if the Howard Government blocks the Senate inquiry as requested by the Greens, he will help set up a 'People's Inquiry', consisting of a body of experts, to discover the truth behind Ms Rau's unlawful detention. And here – another Australian people's inquiry into the Australian government refugee policies.

Anti-war protestors in the UK called for a people's inquiry into the Iraq war , to hold their government to account for the lies that were told to justify the war.

People's Inquiries are controlled by the communities and provide a forum for affected residents and concerned scientists and other professionals to air their stories and concerns in front of community-chosen experts rather than government-chosen experts, so that new information can be documented, and new facts can be uncovered. The conclusions and recommendations from the commissioners of the inquiry will be 'owned' by the people.

Draft Biosecurity Policy has Moth Holes in it...

..according to the Green Party's new spokesperson for Biosecurity, Stefan Browning. That's where the prevention of pests entering the country needs to be focussed, by checking the containers properly at the wharves. In 2003 West Hamilton got drenched in Foray48B on the basis of one male moth that was found, possibly having hitchhiked in an imported car. Check out the Scoop article here..

The People's Inquiry

A People's Inquiry into the impacts of the Painted Apple Moth aerial spraying will be held in Waitakere City in November 2005. This is being organised by a group of people from different community groups who have been opposed to the aerial spraying campaign, mainly for reasons of the health impacts. The People's Inquiry will be held in front of respected commissioners of national and international standing and expertise.


There will be a PUBLIC MEETING on Thursday 28th July 7pm at the Kelston Community Centre,West Auckland, to formalise arrangements and community support for the People's Inquiry. People who attend the meeting can find out about how to make a submission and how their experience can contribute to the Inquiry outcomes.

Check out the video of this TVNZ Sunday programme

Have a look at the recent TVNZ Sunday programme on the Aerial Spraying and how hero whistleblower scientist Simon Hales is saying the spray is NOT proven safe due to the nature of bioaerosols and the lack of long-term research in this area. And watch the Minister of Biosecurity Jim Sutton claim that people's perceptions of risk is affecting their immune systems!!!! And see the beautiful brave Viv, rest her soul, saying how they will have to "scrape her off the tarmac if they try to aerial spray again". Viv died last Monday, barely a week after TVNZ Sunday programme was shown. Her friends and family have all been stunned at the speed at which the MND stole her life. She and I had many a conversation about these issues around the aerial spraying 2002-2004. We are going to carry on Viv, and work to make sure there is no aerial spraying over people, over homes, schools, workplaces ever again.

Purple Pukeko

The Pukeko is a New Zealand swamp bird,(also found around the Pacific), larger than a hen, with shiny indigo feathers, an orange-red beak, and a distinctive tri-syllabic call - " oo-ee-o! oo-e-o!". It screeches in the night. I am a purple human pukeko, and this blog is my screech. A friend of mine died this week of motor neurone disease. She was only diagnosed 7 months ago. She believed strongly that the aerial spraying of Foray48B for two years was the trigger that caused the MND. She reacted and was sick every time they sprayed over our ECO-CITY. This blog is dedicated to her memory and will explore the issues around the aerial spraying campaign. Aerial spraying of pesticides over people must be banned. One day our society will look back in horror at what we did to ourselves.