Good on ya Trev, now adopt the recommendations of ch.13

Green Media Release - 11-2-07

The Green Party congratulates the Government for changing its mind and releasing the previously unpublished thirteenth chapter of the ‘State of the Environment’ report. But it is calling on the Government to take the next step and adopt the recommendations of the chapter.

“Good on Trev for doing the right thing and getting the chapter out there,”says Dr. Russel Norman, Green Party Co-leader.

“Of course the Greens had already provided it to the media, but it’s still good to get it out to the general public, which was difficult for the Greens to do while still protecting the identity of our source.

“Now he could prove that he is just the kind of courageous Environment Minster we’ve been waiting for by adopting the recommendations of the decent public servants who wrote the chapter.

“He could implement recommendations such as:
* Introduce National Environmental Standards, especially for water quality. This would create a level playing field so that good farmers wouldn’t be competing with low-cost agribusiness cutting costs by polluting rivers.
* Drop the tunnel vision and make public transport a larger part of the transport mix by changing the balance in funding between new motorways and new public transport. How about $2.3billion for rail and bike ways?
* Adopt a polluter pays approach. This would mean asking the dairy industry to pay the $1.2billion bill for its greenhouse emissions. This would create the right kind of price signals.
* Give guidance to councils, such as via a National Policy Statement on Urban Design, that urban sprawl is adding to our greenhouse emissions and we need high quality medium density housing not more urban sprawl.
“The Greens are proud to have finally driven this chapter into the public domain. Reports need conclusions, this is standard practice and was the reality of the previous ‘State of the Environment’ report. And reports make recommendations, this too is standard practice. As the Minister actually admitted, there are new elements in chapter 13 and we are pleased that they are out there.”

ENDS

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