Andrew Little

Leader of the Opposition

MEDIA STATEMENT

23 February 2017

Nats’ Water policy a colossal U-turn

In a jaw dropping display of political hypocrisy the Government has announced a fresh water policy that was promised by Labour in 2008, says Leader of the Opposition Andrew Little.

“Today’s promise to have a swimmable water standard by 2040 is a belated acknowledgement that they have polluted our rivers for nine years . Labour’s 2008 policy was to stop waterways getting dirtier, with any dirty rivers to be cleaned up to a swimmable standard over a generation starting immediately.

“National has simply wasted nine years by dithering over wadeable versus swimmable standards and our waterways have got dirtier.

“This is another stuff up by Nick Smith who caved into farming interests and adopted a wadeable standard when he knew this would not solve the crisis facing our waterways.

“This was the same Nick Smith who in 2006 promised all rivers would be swimmable by 2030. In 2008 he had the gall to criticise Labour’s plan as too little too late.

“National has buried its head in the sand for nine years and now surprise, surprise with just 200 days to go the election, the penny has dropped for Nick Smith. However,under this Government’s track record promising swimmable water by 2040 is never never land,” says Andrew Little.

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