Your correspondent "Smiley" (letters September 18) expresses a rather jaundiced and not very well informed view of the Greens, suggesting we are anti-progress and encourage welfare dependency rather than "honest work".
We are of course a party with a strong environmental focus, not only because we love thiscountry and want to protect it, but also because we know that our economic well-being depends on the quality of our natural resources.
"No environment, no economy" is a message that is well understood by primary producers and the tourism industry, our two largest export earners. Polluted rivers, degraded soils, loss of species and habitat do no good to anyone.
Unemployment, and particularly youth unemployment, is a major problem for today, and is storing up more trouble for our future.
The Greens would generate employment by investing in building more affordable homes, insulating and upgrading existing homes, restoring damaged environments through re-vegetation and pest control programmes, and by stimulating high-value manufacturing of "green tech" technology that is in huge demand internationally.
We are all for progress - the trick is to make sure we are progressing in the right direction.
