Hon Dr Nick Smith

Minister for the Environment
22 July 2015 Media Statement
Labour's Environment Bill a bad joke

Labour is exposing itself to ridicule with its Environmental Protection Authority (Protection of Environment) Amendment Bill, which passed its first reading in the House today, Environment Minister Dr Nick Smith says.

"This Bill is a bad joke and exposes just how shallow Labour's environment policies are. Labour seems to think that by repeating the words 'environment' and 'protection' in the law we will somehow magically save the kiwi, address our water quality challenges and eliminate greenhouse gases. Repeating the title of the Act in Clause 12 will do nothing," Dr Smith says.

"It is about as substantive as putting into our health law, 'No one will get sick.' If this is the sum total of Labour's environmental policy-making after six and a half years in Opposition, they will need decades to come up with anything that will make an actual difference.

"National's establishment of the Environmental Protection Authority in 2011 provided real improvements in New Zealand's environmental law. We previously had no system of environmental regulation in our vast oceans covering 20 times our land area. Labour should be embarrassed that while in Government it allowed deep sea drilling and all sorts of other activities without any independent authority assessing the environmental effects, and that it voted against establishing the Authority.

"This Government is open to ideas to improve the EPA but blandly repeating the words 'environment' and 'protection' in the law is meaningless posturing," Dr Smith says.

© Scoop Media