Along with every other business group in the country, EMA Central is disappointed the Government has chosen to force New Zealand business to bare the cost of its enthusiasm for unnecessary international policy.

Employers & Manufacturers Assoc. (Central) chief executive Paul Winter says the reality of our ratification of the Kyoto Protocol is that international business will see it as a stumbling block to investment and development in this country.

Companies already operating in New Zealand could add it to the list of reasons why shifting to Australia, or elsewhere, is better for their business.

“Now ‘Kyoto Compliance’ can be added to the long, and getting longer, list of requirements businesspeople have to think about every day. Instead of thinking about doing more business,” he says.

“And we all will pay for the bureaucracy the government will have to construct to administer this new regime.

“The cold, hard reality is New Zealand is too small to make any improvement to the world’s environment, either physically or politically.

“Our signature on that ratification document isn’t going to make all the other polluting countries in the world see the error of their ways,” he says.

ENDS

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