‘Fulltime environment party’ launches
WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s newest political party, Sustainable NZ, launched yesterday with a promise of increasing conservation funding by $1 billion over four years in a bid to halt the extinction of native species.
Leader Vernon Tava said the funding could come from New Zealand First’s $3 billion Provincial Growth Fund.
And he has endorsed the use of gene technology to help reduce predators.
He described the party as a ‘‘fulltime environment party’’.
‘‘Until now, if you had wanted to vote for the environment, you have had to support a party that has been a clearinghouse for New Zealand’s leftofLabour activist movements, often putting social justice ahead of protecting the environment.’’
Mr Tava is a former Green
Party member and unsuccessfully stood as male leader in 2015 against James Shaw, arguing at the time that the party should be able to partner Labour or National in government, against its traditional position of ruling out National.
At the launch in Wellington yesterday, Mr Tava said his party would put the environment first.
‘‘A true sustainabilitybased party can work with either of the major parties to get the best deal for the environment. We are that party.’’
He said the party would work with rather than against farmers and industry.
The party was proprogress, protechnology and proscience.
‘‘A clean, green prosperous New Zealand could be a world leader in cleantech innovation.
‘‘We are at a fortunate juncture in history where cleantech is driving the next wave of economic activity by eliminating wasteful and harmful byproducts, delivering more with less.’’
Mr Tava said party policy would be informed by science and he had already criticised Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage for curbing research on gene technology.
‘‘The latest techniques can be likened to accelerated selective breeding. They show huge promise in the control of introduced predators and in reducing livestock emissions.’’
He said gene technology was still in its infancy ‘‘yet these powerful tools are denied us based on an ideological position formed in the 1970s, before current technologies were developed’’.
He also expressed concern about the widespread planting of pine trees under the Government’s one billion trees policy.
Mr Tava paid tribute to former party secretary, former head of the Fire Service Mike Hall, who was killed in a plane crash in the Tararua Range last month.
He announced the party’s principles and conservation policy, including a target for conservation spending to comprise 1% of government spending by 2025. — The New Zealand Herald