Laurel, one of the Mataura residents fighting to have toxic ouvea premix removed from the town’s paper mill (Photo: The Paper Mill)
On the edge of the Mataura River, a disused paper mill is filled with thousands of bags of toxic waste. Locals want to find out who’s responsible for it – and they want it gone before disaster strikes.
The Paper Mill is part of Frame, a series of short documentaries produced by Wrestler for The Spinoff.
In February 2020, Mataura locals’ worst nightmare came true. The river that runs through the small Southland town flooded, its swollen waters coming perilously close to the old paper mill. The mill is filled with thousands of bags of ouvea premix, or dross – a waste by-product of the aluminium smelting process that releases poisonous ammonia gas on contact with water.
Nobody in Mataura asked for their paper mill to be filled with toxic waste. It just started arriving in the middle of the night, dropped off by the truckload. And now that it’s there, the town is locked in an ongoing struggle to determine exactly who’s responsible for getting rid of it, and when.
All roads in this story lead to Tiwai, the aluminium smelter 75km down the road, majority owned by global mining giant Rio Tinto. Tiwai originally sold the dross to a company called Taha Industries, who then processed it further into ouvea premix. But Taha Industries has gone into liquidation, creating a vacuum of accountability for the thousands of bags stored precariously close to the river.
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Going back and forth between Tiwai and Rio Tinto, Environment Southland and the District Council, the fight for a solution has been slow and frustrating for those most affected. “It doesn’t give you any confidence in the people who are supposed to be looking after us,” says Laurel, one of the Mataura residents who’s been campaigning for years. “They just don’t seem to care.”
Frame is a series of short, standalone documentaries produced by Wrestler for The Spinoff. Watch more here.
Made with support from NZ On Air.
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What do you spy in this scene? A New Zealand icon.
What do you spy in this scene? A New Zealand icon.
First they came for our pavlova, now they’ve come for our Buzzy Bees. Tara Ward watches the new season of The Crown and discovers Australia has pinched more of our stuff.
It seems I was premature in declaring that season four of The Crown wasall about New Zealand. After a sneak peek at the new season, it’s fair to say that “all about New Zealand” turns out to be “a couple of measly references and a questionable montage that juxtaposes a Māori cultural performance with the Princess of Wales throwing up in a toilet”.
We got it wrong, but we’re not the only ones.
Not only has The Crown largely ignored New Zealand in season four, but it’s gone and rewritten our history. Hard to believe for a British show about the rule of the empire, but true. This season features thewell-known press call from the Prince and Princess of Wales’s 1983 royal tour of Australia and New Zealand, which is recreated in episode six. Originally, this took place on a beautiful autumn day in Auckland. Our trees were green and our grass was thick, and the world was about to see all our naturally photosynthesised beauty for themselves.
A royal rug was placed on the lawn of Government House, and a man and woman sat on it with their baby. And a Buzzy Bee. See the image, captured in posterity below:
Diana, Charles and William on the lawn at Government House (Photo: David Levenson/Getty Images)
This picture-perfect moment of the royal family was shown around the world. Wee William crawled in public for the first time, a developmental feat that New Zealand can take all the credit for. Charles and Diana appeared happy and content, probably thanks to the lushness of the lawn, and said things like “look” and “yes”. Most importantly, Buzzy Bee secured its place as a New Zealand cultural icon after being unexpectedly suckled on by the heir to the throne.
The Crown, however, sees it differently. Below, specifically, is how The Crown sees it:
What do you spy in this scene? A New Zealand icon.
Like Keith Urban eating a lamington pavlova, The Crown has rewritten our past by taking this moment and placing it firmly in Australia. The show’s photocall with baby William takes place when Charles (Josh O’Connor) and Diana (Emma Corrin) visit a New South Wales farm, and while the landscape is dry and brown, the scene clearly references the visit to Government House. Diana rocks that enormous collar, Charles’s hair is parted with similar preciseness, and William acts like a total baby. Even the sheep baa with an Australian accent.
The final nail in the regal coffin, however, is the presence of that Buzzy Bee.
ZOOM AND ENHANCE.
The Buzzy Bee is an iconic New Zealand toy, first designed and produced here during the 1930s. It’s understandable that The Crown would be confused by the presence of the Buzzy Bee, becausebees contribute more to the British economy than the royal family, but it’s a recognisably New Zealand thing. It’s also the toy that’s holding the Commonwealth together. In the 1950s, they made a Queen Buzzy Bee with a polythene crown, and in 2019,Prince William gave a personalised buzzy bee to Neve Ardern-Gayford to celebrate her first birthday.
Perhaps he knew what was coming in season four of The Crown. Too little, too late, William.
In the end, it’s all about Australia, and New Zealand barely features in the new season. Members from Ngāti Rānana London Māori Club appear briefly to perform a haka, and deserve better than the montage The Crown has created, where it is bizarrely crosscut with Diana having a bulimic episode. Other than that, we’re left with Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson) mentioning her New Zealand chief of staff, and there’s an actor who may or may not be playing David Lange in one episode.
Who’s responsible for this crime in British-New Zealand relations? The Queen (Olivia Colman) gets the blame for everything else in season four, so let’s start with her. I also think Prince Andrew had something to do with it, even though he’ll swear he was at Pizza Express. We could even point the finger at that Buzzy Bee, who, although a painted piece of wood, should have known better. What’s the point of having an iconic national toy if it’s not going to speak out at an important moment to defend the country that lathed it into existence?
Disappointing, on many levels.
Season four of The Crown drops on Netflix on November 15
