Shane Ardern MP
National Party Forestry Spokesman
21 February 2006

Govt not taking forestry industry seriously

The forestry industry has a right to feel aggrieved with the Government and to question its commitment to this important sector, says National Forestry spokesman Shane Ardern.

He was commenting after the forestry industry walked out of talks last week with the Government on climate change issues, and Helen Clark’s dismissal of the incident yesterday as a ‘hiccup’.

“The arrogance of the Labour-Progressive Government in not taking the forestry sector’s concerns seriously and to expect them to take on the cost of the Kyoto fiasco is typical of Jim Anderton and his Labour cohorts,” says Mr Ardern.

“The Minister should apologise to the industry for the ill-advised treatment he meted out to them under his stewardship, and resolve the issue immediately.

“The forestry industry deserves to be listened to and deserves fairer treatment in a situation which was not of their making.

“Our overseas competitors are no doubt enjoying the mess that this Minister has created with forestry. We need to fix this problem, and fix it now.”

ENDS

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