Public Statement
Why this site publishes its corrections
An evidence site that cannot be corrected is not an evidence site, it is a leaflet. So our corrections register is public, our right of response is standing and unconditional, and there is one figure of our own we have refused to publish because it does not reconcile. This is a public statement of Ridgeburn Press policy, not a finding about anyone.
This is the first thing Ridgeburn Press published, and it was published before any classified content, deliberately. A site that argues from evidence has to say what it will do when its evidence turns out to be wrong — before it is wrong, not after.
We are not neutral about the proposal at Arrow Junction. We think 1,200 dwellings, around 3,000 daily vehicle movements, around a million litres of wastewater a day and 2.8 tonnes of nitrogen a year are a case to answer, and we say so. But being against something is not a licence to be loose with it, and the strongest argument we can make is one an opponent cannot knock over by finding a single error we refused to fix.
The standing offer
Any person or organisation named on this site may respond, in full, at any time. That includes Ridgeburn Limited, Morven Ferry Limited, Queenstown Lakes District Council, its elected members, any Minister named in a process description, and any expert whose work we discuss.
The terms are short and they do not change:
- A response is published unedited. We may add a reply; we do not trim theirs.
- A response is published in the same place as the material it answers, not buried.
- Requesting a correction costs nothing and requires no lawyer.
- The offer stands whether or not we agree with the response.
The mechanism is on Corrections & Right of Response, and it was published before the pages that name anyone.
What we will correct
A figure misquoted. A document reference wrong. A classification that overstates what a source supports. A characterisation of a process that does not match the statute. An implication we did not intend but a reasonable reader drew. All of those are corrections, and all of them are published as corrections rather than edited away.
When something substantive changes, the change is recorded on the register with what it was, what it is now and why. Silent editing is how a publication loses the right to be believed.
The register starts empty, and that is not a boast
An empty corrections register on a new site means nothing has been corrected yet. It does not mean nothing is wrong. We would rather publish that sentence than let an empty page imply a track record we have not earned.
Two rules we hold ourselves to
First: no adverse statement about a named person or company ships without a source link. At launch that means the pages dealing with The Developers and Queenstown Lakes District Council contain document references and no adverse statements at all. If that reads as thin, it is supposed to.
Second: motive is never asserted, inferred or implied. Registered proprietors, councillors and Ministers appear on this site in process-descriptive, official-capacity terms only. A record of title shows ownership; it does not show intention. A referral decision is a document; it is not a state of mind.
Both rules are published in full on How We Classify Evidence, alongside the classification vocabulary every item on this site carries and the three labels we use to mark a gap rather than paper over it.
What we will not publish
- An unsourced adverse claim about anyone. One of those discredits every careful figure around it, and our opponents know that better than our supporters do.
- An invented expert, quote or spokesperson. No name appears on this site unless the person exists and the attribution is real. Our bylines are desk names for exactly that reason.
- A derived number dressed as a sourced one. We do not multiply the wastewater volume out to a yearly total, or convert the traffic figure to an hourly rate. Arithmetic on a sourced number produces an unsourced number.
- Our own fundraising total, until it reconciles. There is one figure in our campaign material that we have not been able to reconcile against our records, and we have withheld it rather than publish a number we cannot stand behind. It will be published when it reconciles, and not before. Our target and its milestones are on Support the Investigation.
That last one costs us something, and it is the clearest test of whether any of this is real. A campaign that will not apply its own standard to its own numbers has no standing to apply it to anyone else's.
How to hold us to it
Request a correction through Corrections & Right of Response. Challenge a classification the same way — the vocabulary is published precisely so that it can be argued with. Send us a document and we will publish it with its classification attached, including one that does not help us. That is the deal, and Have Your Say is where it starts.
Evidence statement
Classification: Public Statement
Status: A statement of Ridgeburn Press editorial policy. It makes no finding about any person or organisation and cites no external source, because it describes only our own conduct.
Author: Ridgeburn Press Office
Last reviewed: 16 September 2026
Sources
- Ridgeburn Press classification vocabulary and editorial standards, published at How We Classify Evidence
- Ridgeburn Press corrections policy and register, published at Corrections & Right of Response
Assumptions
- This statement binds Ridgeburn Press only and imposes no obligation on any other party.
What is not established
- Any fact about the proposal at Arrow Junction — this page makes none.
- Any conduct, intention or position of any named person or organisation.
Right of response
Ridgeburn Limited, Queenstown Lakes District Council and any person named here may respond in full. How to respond.
Filed by
Ridgeburn Press Office
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