Save the environment, don't shoot it

Exploiting the environment is not the same as saving it, Green Party Co-leader Rod Donald advised United Future's Peter Dunne today.

Mr Dunne had claimed that his party's merger today with the Outdoor Recreation NZ Party would add "intellectual rigour into the environmental debate".

"Absorbing the huntin'-shootin'-fishin' party will do nothing to enhance UF's already-dubious environmental credentials," Mr Donald said. "Non-aligned environmental groups rated Dunne's environmental policies the second-worst of all parties at the last election, and a merger with the pro-gun party isn't going to change that."

The Vote for the Environment Campaign, made up of a non-partisan coalition of environmental groups comprising ECO, Federated Mountain Clubs, Greenpeace New Zealand and Forest and Bird, rated UF's commitment to the environment at 28 per cent. The Green Party rated 97 per cent.

"It is was only a matter of time before the pro-tobacco, pro-big business, pro-gambling party merged with the gun lobby," said Mr Donald. "They both appear to share a belief that conservation is only about protecting game parks and trout streams.

"If Mr Dunne and his colleagues were serious about the environment they would abandon the playground name-calling and start cooperating on solutions to the very real problems facing our land, air and water."

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