It is almost as if the environment was really cruel to senior members of the Government when they were kids. But whatever the reason this Government appears to be intent on wrecking the local environment with a degree of vengeance and stupidity not seen before.
Evidence of this is clear to see.
First up there was passing under urgency the repeal of the clean car discount thereby committing us to have more gas guzzlers enter the country’s car fleet.
There was also repurposing of the Carbon Fund for tax cuts.
There was also Shane Jones claiming that the previous Government’s approach to climate change was hysterical, that mining of the DoC estate including Stewardship land would be fast tracked and that “if there is a mining opportunity and it’s impeded by a blind frog, goodbye, Freddy“.
Not to mention getting ready to resume drilling for oil and mining for coal.
There is also the Fast-track Projects Bill which gives three ministers unprecedented power to allow pretty well anything. If you want to drill Mount Aorangi for gold then put your application in. Even if something was prohibited previously or is in a World Heritage Area the way the bill is drafted allows the Ministers to grant approval.
The bill is that bad the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, who is also a former National Party MP, has urged the Government to scrap the role of Ministers as decision makers, limit eligible projects to those that provide significant public benefits, elevate environmental considerations and exclude previously declined or prohibited activities from the process.
And the Auditor General has urged changes to include requirements for better managing conflicts of interest. All those donors to the major parties also making application for their projects to be included in schedule 2a has a definite whiff of corruption about it.
There are also the attacks on public transport and cycleways.
Already there is a long list of crappy policy decisions being made which will have an adverse effect on the environment.
To add to this list of monstrosities we now have news that the Government will be moving to unwind reforms made by the previous government to improve water quality standards basically because their farmer mates asked for it.
From Radio New Zealand:
Farming, mining and other industrial regulations are being scrapped or amended under the government’s first changes to the Resource Management Act.
The changes include revision of stock exclusion, winter grazing, Te Mana o te Wai, mining consenting, and suspension of Significant Natural Area requirements.
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop announced the government’s plan in a statement today, highlighting five changes the government expected to introduce in its legislation due to be introduced to Parliament in May and passed by the end of the year.
He said the government was aiming to “reduce the regulatory burden on resource consent applicants and support development in key sectors, including farming, mining and other primary industries”.
The changes will be pushed through quickly. They include the following:
The changes, like earlier changes such as setting up an “independent” panel to yet again review the 2050 methane targets, makes you wonder if the Government writing to Fonterra and asking if it had any projects that it wanted fast tracked was such a good thing. The Government has done the bidding of farmers every other time farmers have demanded something. One wonders what farmer demanded attrocities await us if and when the Fast-track Projects Bill is passed.
All of this behaviour shows a complete disdain for the environment. Worsening environmental standards and a weakend response to our greenhouse gas reduction obligations are inevitable.
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