Budget takes teensy-weensy steps towards sustainability

Listen to Jeanette's speech on this subject.

The Labour Government's 2007 Budget smacks of 'greenwash', with the only concessions to carbon neutrality and sustainability stemming from pressure from the Green Party, Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons says.

"This Budget will make us just a teensy-weensy bit more sustainable in a few years, with carbon emissions growing only slightly slower than they are now. This is very far from reaching the Prime Minister's aspirational goal of a carbon neutral New Zealand.

"Without pressure from the Green Party, genuine changes such as the electrification of the Auckland Rail system, improvements to Wellington rail, an energy efficient homes package, serious biodiversity protection in three wetland areas and a solar water heating initiative would have been absent from today's Budget.

"However, the Government has all but ignored the Stern report and other warnings that the dangers of ignoring climate change will be hugely costly.

"If the Prime Minister's aspiration is serious we might have expected a price on carbon this year, linked to the world price, and a fairly rapid transition to polluters taking responsibility for their carbon emissions. But that is not there.

"If the Government was truly committed to sustainability, we would have seen the much lauded business tax cuts given to those who invested in reducing their carbon footprint. Instead, these are being indiscriminately handed out to polluters and conservers, fossil and renewable energy suppliers and users, organic and highly chemical farmers, good employers and bad, innovators and laggards in technology. They will produce no change in behaviour and serve no public goal except lining a few pockets.

"We could have expected a substantial fund to invest in cleaner technology, better planning and design, sustainable infrastructure like public transport a decent rail system and coastal shipping and planting of steep eroding land.

"The Greens revelations about the way our Super Fund savings were being invested in nuclear weapons, uranium mining, cluster bombs and tobacco have led to a requirement for transparency in the way managed funds are invested — but no change in the way public funds are invested.

"This Budget suggests the Government is trying to bolster its failing support by tapping into the New Zealanders' growing concern for the environment and the future of the planet. But scratch the surface, and you find it largely greenwash," Ms Fitzsimons says.