Kit Richards deserves an award for enterprise, ACT MP Gerry Eckhoff said today.

"Mr Richards is laughing all the way to the bank, while Prime Minister Helen Clark is left looking extremely foolish.

"Helen Clark thought she had single-handedly saved the Beech trees of the West Coast. All she did was provide Mr Richards and his business associates with cash to develop their own business.

"Why logging is sustainable on private land but not on crown land is an absolute mystery that Ms Clark and Ms Lee need to explain to the public.

"The irony is that this Government wasted $120 million without 'saving' a single Beech tree.

"The fear now is that the red-faced Government will retaliate on applications to mine on Crown land. They have shown that they are certainly vindictive enough to do so," Gerry Eckhoff said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media