The $1b plan for new jobs
Party’s shovel-ready projects not about bulldozers and asphalt
The Greens are calling for $1 billion to be poured into a conservation package to create “nature-based jobs” to revive the Covid-19-hit economy.
The package, unveiled today, is designed to quickly generate up to 7000 jobs — particularly in hard-hit industries such as tourism, while enhancing the environment and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
It comes as the economic impacts of Covid-19 escalate, with massive job losses in tourism-heavy areas such as Queenstown, and responds to Government calls for “shovel-ready” projects to boost the economy.
The “nature-based” package is part of a push to ensure the recovery is environment-friendly, and follows a Green Party proposal last week for a $9b investment in rapid electric trains to transform travel between towns and cities across the country.
“An economic response fit for the long-term challenges we face as a nation means investing in nature as Aotearoa’s essential infrastructure,” said co-leader Marama Davidson.
“This will make sure generations now and in the future have healthy streams and rivers. It ensures native birds and wildlife are thriving, and wetlands and bush are regenerated.”
The $1b package over three years would support proposals from communities, iwi, businesses, NGOs, councils and the Department of Conservation.
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage, speaking in her role as Green Party environment spokeswoman, said many of those who had lost jobs in tourism could easily transfer their skills into environmental projects.
“These work opportunities are well suited to those who have worked outdoors such as tourist guides currently out of work, those who have people and project management skills or who want to quickly retrain and get their hands dirty helping nature. Our tourism industry depends on the health of our nature, and culture, so it is important to invest in this critical infrastructure, rather than just bulldozers and asphalt.”
Although the four-week lockdown has heavily reduced air pollution, the reality is much of New Zealand’s indigenous flora and fauna now relies on interventions for survival because of human actions.
“Shovel-ready” projects that could benefit from the funding include an iwi-led plan to save the Rauku¯mara Conservation Park, dying under the sheer numbers of introduced deer and possums.
Te Wha¯nau a¯ Apanui and Nga¯ti Porou has been crying out for support for its four-year vision to care for the wounded nga¯here (forest) and bring back native birds while creating dozens of jobs, with a long-term goal of providing tourism opportunities.
The funding would also ensure New Zealand’s economic recovery did not “lock” the country into a high greenhouse gas emissions pathway by focusing on carbon-intensive projects such as motorways, as previously warned by the Climate Change Commission, and a vast array of NGOs.
“This investment creates thriving native forests and wetlands, assets that last centuries and suck carbon out of the atmosphere,” Sage said.
It would include projects to improve NZ’s water quality, weed and pest control, scale up native plant
nurseries, expand Predator Free 2050 and upgrade tramping tracks.
In the past, coalition Government partners have not been particularly friendly to some Green Party proposals, including the electric vehicle “feebate” scheme, opposed by NZ First. But with the economic impacts starting to bite from Covid-19 and job losses mounting, Sage said they would be pushing hard for support.
“The Government moved immediately with its wage assistance, and is now looking at a wider programme, so our ministers and MPs will continue to campaign for low-emission, climate-friendly investment in nature.”