Conservation Minister Nick Smith said Labour's Conservation Policy is short on detail, and if their previous performance is anything to go by, conservation will again be relegated to the margin of all talk and no action.

"The last time Labour held the purse strings, they let Department of Conservation over-spend by $10 million, then made them pay it back out of future budgets and finally cut their budget in 1990. Under National, there have been consistent increases each year in the conservation budget."

"The absence of any specific undertaking to increase resources speaks volumes about Labour's low level of commitment to conservation. In their conservation policy, there are 13 pages of words. Not one of these are backed up with a single funding commitment. In 1990, their funding commitment to possum control was $380,000. National has increased this annual expenditure to $13.5 million."

"In Labour's last time in Government they established one marine reserve, National have established 13 so far, with consultation underway for another eight. National have done more to protect our marine environment than any other Government. National is firmly committed to establishing the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park, where was Labour? When the crunch came, Labour walked away from its commitment to marine protection."

"Labour are promising increased funding for conservation. No-one would argue with that, but exactly how much, exactly when and exactly where is it coming from?"

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>