“It would appear that the price of the Epsom deal and a National ACT Government is the open slather sale of New Zealand to overseas buyers and unchecked environment degradation,” Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman said today.
“The RMA is a land mark piece of legislation that protects our environment. A National Act Government will undermine those protections and in the process not only destroy the environment but our economy.
“It would seem if voters in Epsom vote for the ACT party they are giving up on their right to ensure that developments, such as multi-story high rises, in Epsom happen in a sensitive and appropriate way.
“The problem with the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) is that it needs more teeth not less in order to limit the sale of productive land to offshore buyers. ACT’s proposal to remove constraints on offshore buyers of New Zealand land will destroy the dream of ordinary New Zealanders who would like to be able to buy a farm in their own country, they will simply be priced out of the market.
“National’s coalition partner ACT proposal’s constitute economic vandalism.
“Both the RMA and the OIO can serve as important protectors of our environment and our economy and removing them would be incredibly damaging for New Zealand.
“ACT’s proposals show what another three years of an National Act Government would be – more foreign land sales and more environmental degradation.
“In contrast, this election the Green Party is campaigning to protect our environment, including making our rivers clean enough to swim in, and to restrict foreign land sales of productive and resident land to New Zealand residents,” said Dr Norman.
