MEDIA RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE USE

15 OCTOBER 1999

LABOUR'S GREEN POLICY A BLUEPRINT FOR RED TAPE

Labour's environmental policy, would create endless stifling red tape for farmers and agribusinesses, Minister for Food and Fibre, John Luxton said today.

"A good environmental policy balances the needs of the environment with the need for jobs, growth and development. This policy will jeopardise both."

"Giving legal aid to environmental groups to fight farmers in the Environmental Court is outrageous. Increasing the bureaucracy surrounding the assessment of environmental impacts for resource consents will further grind farmers and rural people into the ground."

"Farmers are good custodians of the land. They know that sustainable land management is necessary to ensure the long-term viability of our land-based industries. They need a Government that recognises this, not one which seems intent on destroying New Zealand's most important industry.

"National knows the important contribution agriculture makes to the economy because many Cabinet Ministers are from farming backgrounds and a number of our MPs are from rural electorates. National will continue to work with rural people to forge a brighter and more prosperous future. While a quality environment is equally important, National knows we forsake farmers at New Zealand's peril," Mr Luxton concluded.

For further information please contact:

www.executive.govt.nz/minister/luxton

© 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>>