Greetings Greenies

I am the self-appointed keeper of the “The List” which itemises the National Government’s environmental decisions and I’m wondering if you might cast your learned eyes over it and make any suggestions / alterations which might be required. I’m going to try and post it on various blogs once a month or so as my little piece of protest action.

Since being elected in November 2008, National Ltd™ has:

has been caught out repeatedly lying in the run up to and during the election campaign about its real intentions in relation to the environment

defended internationally the importation of rain-forest-wrecking palm kernel and stood silent while Federated Farmers called Greenpeace “terrorists”

removed a proposed efficiency standard (MEPS) on incandescent lightbulbs

reversed a moratorium on building new gas/oil/coal power stations

removed the bio fuel subsidy

scrapped the scheme that would have penalised imported vehicles producing high emissions

removed regulations for water efficient new housing

renewed leases on sensitive high country farms which were meant to return to DOC

reversed restrictions on the freeholding of vast swathes of land on the edge of the Southern Lakes

arbitrarily excised 400 hectares from the brand new Oteake Conservation Park, including the most important and, ecologically, the rarest part of the new Park, the tussock and shrubland that went right down to the banks of the Manuherikia River, to enable future access to lignite

had nothing to say in regard to the World Commission on Protected areas of IUCN’s severe criticism of its intention to investigate mineral resources and mining opportunities in protected conservation areas including our three UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Te Wahi Pounamu-South West New Zealand, Tongariro National Park and the Sub Antarctic Islands

approved two prospecting permit applications lodged by Australian iron-ore giant Fortescue Metals Group subsidiary FMG Pacific lodged in June – areas covered by the two-year permits include an 8204-square-kilometre area of seabed adjoining the west coast from Cape Reinga to the Manukau HarbouraA 3798-square-kilometre prospecting area of land from Cape Reinga to the Kaipara Harbour including Ninety Mile Beach, the west side of the Aupouri Peninsula, Kaitaia and the Hokianga.

was forced to release its Ministry of Economic Development (MED) report under the Official Information Act that proclaims “significant mineral potential” in the Fiordland, Kahurangi and Paparoa national parks – the report said the Waitutu area of the Fiordland National Park had sufficient petroleum reserves to be “worthy” of inclusion in a review of conservation land protected from mining

secretly granted the minerals industry the right to veto proposed National Park boundaries and permission for any such vetoes to be kept confidential – in spite of recommendations from its own officials against any such a veto

Minster of Conservation Tim Grosser, on 29 August 2009, called for caring New Zealanders to halt their “emotional hysteria” and recognise that conservation land should be mined for minerals and went on to say “Mining in a modern, technological way can have a negligible effect”

Associate Minister of Conservation Kate Wilkinson, in an interview in “Canterbury Farming” rubished her own department, DOC, suggesting it was incapable of looking after the high country reserves and parks under its control

gutted the home insulation scheme

pulled $300 million out of public transport, walking and cycling schemes and added it to a pot of $2 billion to ‘upgrade’ state highways

changed the law to provide billions of dollar in subsidies for polluters via the ETS casino which is now a target for scamming by international criminals

begun a process of gutting the Resource Management Act to make it difficult/impossible for the public to lodge appeals against developers

removed the ability of Auckland to introduce a fuel levy to fund planned public transport upgrades

left electrification of rail network up in the air without promised funding commitments

removed the Ministry for the Environment’s programme to make Government Departments ‘carbon neutral’

removed funding for public tv advertising on sustainability and energy efficiency

pulled funding for small-town public litter bin recycling schemes

cabinet ministers expressing public support the bulldozing of Fiordland

reduced Department of Conservation funding by about $50 million over three years

canceled funding for the internationally acclaimed ‘Enviroschools’ programme

usurped the democratic role of local Councils of determining policies for their citizens by requiring the abandonment of the efficient and well-established tree protection rules for urban areas

set about revamping Auckland governance in a way that is likely to greatly reduce the ‘Environmental Watchdog’ role of the the current Regional Council

took a 0% emissions reduction target to Copenhagen. Yes, seriously, that isn’t a misprint – that was the lower bound of their negotiation platform – then missed the 01/02/10 deadline for commitment to action it had agreed to – meanwhile 55 of the 80 countries which attended did make the deadline

secretly cancelled the internationally recognised scheme for the mandatory labelling of exotic woods to ensure the timber has not been taken from rain forests in direct contradiction of its own statements made at the 13th World Forestry Congress in Argentina

supported the Department of Conservation’s decision to open up the pristine Cathedral Cove to an ice-cream franchise

taken no action to reduce existing pollution pouring into the Manawatu River and is “leaving it up to industry” to come up with solutions to heal the river which was described by the Cawthorn Institute as “one of the worst polluted in the Western world”

announced a $1.1 million industry subsidy to kick start marine farming without identifying no-go areas nor putting in place a consultation process for individiuals, communities, and other general coastal users

blamed New Zealanders after a Japanese whaling ship deliberately smashed into a smaller, more vulnerable craft in the open sea

Regards

BLiP