'Betrayed' Greens leader lays into Government

Jeanette Fitzsimons

Greens leader Jeanette Fitzsimons has made a scathing attack on the Government, saying it has no obvious new ideas and may be remembered for taking "giant leaps" backwards.

In her State of the Planet speech yesterday, Ms Fitzsimons expressed the extent of the Greens' distaste for Labour's arrangements with New Zealand First and United Future, saying the Greens had felt "betrayed" by the deal.

In her strongest criticism of the Labour-led Government to date, Ms Fitzsimons said it was unable to be more than a "caretaker" Administration and had "no obvious new ideas, no vision for creating a more habitable world".

"It is a Government which will be notable mainly for preventing a National agenda rather than for implementing anything positive."

Ms Fitzsimons told the Herald the Greens felt a sense of betrayal because they had understood they were Labour's preferred partner.

"We believe that most Labour voters believed they were voting for a Labour and Green Government."

The Greens eventually struck a co-operation agreement, under which they will abstain on confidence and supply votes in return for an enhanced energy efficiency programme, including solar panels for homes, and a "Buy Kiwi Made" campaign.

Ms Fitzsimons said that in those projects the Greens would be acting as part of the Government, but that did not reduce the party's ability to bring the Government to account.

The political leader with the gentle demeanour was less than gentle yesterday in her criticism of the Government over the scrapping of the carbon tax last month.

"It is Labour and Labour alone that must face the music for abandoning our sole economic instrument to internalise the environmental costs of carbon."

She said Labour had "wimped out" by not rejecting the Treasury report on the carbon tax. National, New Zealand First and United Future had all tried to take credit for the cancelling of the tax, but Ms Fitzsimons said it was solely Labour's doing.

"I think they [Labour] had been planning it for some time. I think it would suit Labour if people think they had no choice because of their agreement with Winston and Peter Dunne, but that is absolutely not true."

A spokesman for Prime Minister Helen Clark said last night that Labour was proud of its record on environmental issues and would continue promoting environmental policies over the next three years.

Ms Fitzsimons' State of the Planet speech, was delivered at Waihopai near Blenheim. It is the second year that she has given the address.

Last year her speech focused on the ecological collapse of the oceans, climate change and the depletion of oil supplies.

"Twelve months on it would be easy to despair at the lack of action from Government on these issues and the continued procrastination I foresee for the next 12 months," she said yesterday.

She warned against a free-trade agreement with the US, saying New Zealand should learn from the Australian experience where "the blood of Australians in Iraq has been traded for an FTA".