The Green Party’s position on dioxins is a straight up and down case of double standards, said Owen Jennings, ACT’s spokesman on the Environment.

“Sue Kedgley’s claims are alarmist and plain wrong. The Green Party supports landfills – which are New Zealand’s biggest source of dioxin. The Greens support the largest landfill in the country planned for Hampton Downs in the north Waikato. In doing so they actually support a potential expansion of dioxin poisoning.

“A Green Party founder and list candidate, Judith Bischoff is a director of the company that is building this new source of dioxin poisoning.

“There are major concerns about fires at the Hampton Downs site which are a very significant source of dioxin and the treatment of leachate on or off the site. Current plans do not adequately deal with these problems. The Green party would be doing something useful if it concentrated on improving the facilities at landfills that would reduce dioxin emissions.

“New Zealand’s levels of dioxin are very low by international standards. Sue Kedgley chooses to use statistical information wrongly to create alarm and attention. The attached graphs by the Ministry of the Environment show how New Zealand is in good shape relatively compared to other developed countries.

“Of course we want to do better and we must deal with offending sites but the wild claims pedalled by the Greens are troublemaking. Sue Kedgley compared New Zealand’s food dioxin levels with the long-term goal the U.S has set suggesting we were out of line. She should have given the current U.S. rates, which are much higher than ours’.

“New Zealanders are eating and exporting the very best food with the lowest international levels of dioxin. These are literally undetectable in most instances. The Greens are being deceptive with the information knowing that the measurement system gives those who do not understand the method a false picture. The Greens should be trumpeting our huge advantage so that we can gain from our superior position.

“The Greens credibility is highly suspect,” Owen Jennings said.

ENDS

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