Wagner Nicky: General Debate 
Wagner Nicky: General Debate 
[Volume:635;Page:6307] 
NICKY WAGNER (National) 
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 Suddenly the Prime Minister is talking about sustainability the environment global warming and carbon neutrality—well just about anything to get the public diverted from the pledge card and her illegal spending for the 2005 election campaign. Shame on her. The environment is too big an issue and too important an issue to be a mere diversion. Excuse me for my cynicism but for the last 7 years Labour has been too involved with pushing its social engineering agenda to think too deeply about the environment and it has left it all to the Greens. But now just when Labour’s “business as usual” approach is looking downright grubby Ms Clark discovers her environmental consciousness. Well excuse me! 
I have to say that I admire the Greens’ dedication to environmental issues. They understand the importance of looking after our natural world and they have worked long and hard to raise public awareness of environmental issues and to change behaviour. But as with all pioneers of new ideas it has been hard work for them to get their message out to ordinary New Zealanders and to motivate change. They have also suffered from being linked with extreme-left political policies as many middle-of-the-road conservative New Zealanders have not been able to get past those politics to consider the important environmental issues. These people see the Greens as the “Watermelon Party”—green on the outside but pink in the middle. 
National’s blue-green environmental policy released last month is the first public manifestation of an environmental consciousness that has always underpinned National’s work. For the last 70 years National’s rural voters have been the guardians of the land and generally speaking they have done a fine job. We are still one of the cleanest and greenest countries in the world but with increasing urbanisation and pressures on resources there needs to be a new partnership style of environmental guardianship of our natural heritage. 
The Bluegreens were formed in 1997 and they have worked quietly in the background ever since. They are a testimony to the fact that one does not have to be red to be green. The blue-green vision for New Zealand is for all New Zealanders who want a better environmental future for our country. It seeks long-term consistency and effectiveness in environment policy. If we are to make a real difference we need to negotiate with all stakeholders and all political parties to reach a real consensus because our natural environment will be here long after individuals voters and political parties are dead and gone. We need to make good decisions about the environment: decisions that are timely decisions that are based on good science and decisions that will give us long-term sustainable results. 
National believes that most New Zealanders want to do things differently in respect of our environment and now is the time to focus on the important issues—to clean up our air to clean up our water and to manage our resources better. We need to decide on the key indicators to monitor the health of our environment for at the moment after 7 years of this Labour Government many of the important indicators are looking pretty sick. 
With regard to our air scientists estimate that nearly 1000 people die prematurely each year because of air pollution. That is three times the number of crash victims we have. In the face of global warming in the last 7 years our greenhouse gas emissions have increased faster than for almost any other country in the world. How carbon neutral is that? And in the area of water New Zealand has real problems with managing both quality and quantity of its water resources. More and more New Zealanders are concerned about substandard drinking water in streams rivers and lakes that are also no longer safe to swim and fish in. We need to take action and we need to take it fast. In forestry growing trees is one of the smartest ways to combat global warming—and Labour is chopping them down.