Let’s praise our tree huggers

The Prime Minister has revealed his true colours. The worldwide mantra of good planning, sustainable development is out, the housing crisis, the lack of infrastructure, the traffic jams are all the fault of the “tree huggers”.

After watching friendly Bill improving his image by shearing a sheep to emphasise his oneness with nature last week I am outraged at his stance — but at least it allowed me to see his real agenda.

Interestingly, he and Nick Smith are registered co-owners on behalf of the Government of the Tamaki Redevelopment Company currently throwing people out of their homes in Glen Innes and it is the same Nick Smith who is still trying to take as many environmental protections as possible permanently out of the Resource Management Act.

As we ground along the motorway kilometre after kilometre in first gear, I looked over the tree-filled city, the product of 35 years of protection, glowing in the sunset and felt pride, till we reached the treeless, grassless, urban new builds standing crammed together in their ugly sameness, their identical dark grey roofs overheating the charged atmosphere.

Will there be a sunset to enjoy 15 years from now in this crammed city without the filtering effect of the thousands of trees being daily sacrificed to developers, and will we wonder why we cannot breathe in the Beijing-like air thick with pollutants? Will that, too, be the fault of the “tree huggers?” Judith Mackereth, Howick.