Tomorrow Today the Green Party is launching launched the first of it’s election priorities in Hamilton at 11. 00 am. The focus is on building a
cleaner, fairer, smarter New Zealand.
Green Party Facebook pages have this notice:
With 10 weeks until the election on September 20th, we’re excited to be launching the first of our election priorities to build a cleaner, fairer, smarter New Zealand, at 11am this Sunday in Hamilton.
Follow @NZGreens on Twitter for live updates, and of course we’ll share the full details with you on Facebook too.
Tracy Watkins reckons tomorrow’s launch will focus on water quality.
The announcement is in Hamilton, which makes it a sure bet that they will be unveiling a policy on water quality, a key issue for the party, which has developed a strategy for the election under which environmental policy is one of three crucial legs.
Watkins has buried this within an article that general uses wedge politics to undermine left wing parties generally. The focus of the article is on painting Laila Harre’s past in terms of faction politics of competition, fragmentation and divisions within the left.
She continues this approach by referring to the Internet Party’s release of their environment policy as being in direct competition with the Greens. [IP press release from Laila Harre]
Actually, the big story with the policies of both The Greens and IP, is that they highlight the importance of environmental policies for this election. The Greens already have a strong track record, and focus on the environment. The more of the parties and voters on the left that are on board with positive and workable environment policies, the better for NZ and it’s people.
It’ good to see that the IP has a detailed policy on the environment online. There is a strong focus on the use of clean, green technologies. It’s also good to see that aim to promote public transport, cycling and walking.
The Green Party policies on energy
and various aspects of the environment are here:
Natural resources
A point of difference between left parties, for voters to consider, is in policies on mining, especially oil and gas exploration. Labour, as stated by Shearer on the Nation this morning, is more for restricted approach, strong checks on safety and protection of the environment from spillages and other damage, while working towards phasing out of fossil fuel extraction and use.
The Greens oppose such exploration. The IP wants
an immediate moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, land-farming, deep-sea exploration, undersea mining and deep-well injection until the recommendations of the Commissioner for the Environment about these environmentally risky extraction industry processes are debated publicly and acted on by Parliament. The objective is to achieve a social mandate for processes that are safe, properly consented and monitored, and to ensure modern and environment-friendly methods – if they are available – are given greater priority as emphasis on fossil fuels is phased down.
I will be interested to see the form that the Green Party launch takes tomorrow. Water, if that turns out to be tomorrow’s focus, is a key resource and very important to our future. It is also important for the country that the Greens show leadership and promote positive and workable policies in making the environment a key election priority.
It is also notable that the Green Party has highlighted 3 prongs to their election campaign, with aims to lessen inequalities and to get rid of poverty being an on-going and central concern:
a cleaner,
fairer,
smarter New Zealand
[Update]
Today the Green Party Launched their Clean Rivers Priority.
Green Party launches key election priority, rivers clean enough for swimming
The Green Party has announced today that its number one environmental priority for this election is making our rivers clean enough to swim in again and keeping our beaches safe from oil spills.
The Green Party will make a series of announcements over the course of the election campaign in which it will outline the specifics of how it will clean up our rivers and protect our beaches. In the first of these announcements, made today, the party launched its plan for clean rivers.
The key policy points in the Green Party’s plan for clean rivers are:
1. Establish a protected rivers network
[…]
2. Set robust standards that ensure rivers are clean enough for swimming
[…]
3. Keep our wild rivers wild by not building any new dams on them
I like that it’s an important environmental policy, targeting a key resource for living, business and public sector activities, by promoting it in terms that will have meaning for most Kiwis.
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