Jeanette Fitzsimons: National running scared

Jeanette Fitzsimons

In another of our occasional series providing extended coverage of the most significant speeches of the election campaign, Jeanette Fitzsimons attacks what she calls a smear campaign against the Green Party. This is an edited transcript:

In the past few weeks, National has hit on a new strategy: if they can't win the battle of ideas with Labour, they'll attack the Greens instead.

National's stream of anti-Green vitriol has been flattering: it shows that Don Brash considers the Greens a serious threat to his political ambitions and so will take every opportunity to demean, demonise and deride us.

The National Party has put out anti-Green press releases at the rate of almost one a day in the past month, and the media have given their smears a great deal of airtime. Although the Greens won't descend to this level, it is time to set the record straight.

National opposes the Greens so staunchly because our working relationship with Labour dramatically exposes Don Brash's acute lack of a coalition partner.

Kiwis can see that Labour and the Greens are ready to govern together, for the betterment of all New Zealanders. Don Brash, on the other hand, seems determined to kill off or alienate all his potential support parties.

Act is terminal and United is polling below the margin of error. The Maori Party has ruled itself out of a National-led Government, and Brash has written NZ First off as "irrelevant".

He seems determined to go it alone; to govern New Zealand without the hassle of having to work with anyone else.

But New Zealanders voted for MMP because they had watched Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson say one thing and do another with complete disregard for the democratic process and they didn't want anyone to have this much power again.

So, what of the substance of National's allegations against the Greens? We are, National says, "scary". We are scary because we stand up for the environment, for sustainable business, for a diverse, tolerant New Zealand and for smart energy and transport solutions.

The Greens believe the two most important challenges facing the New Zealand economy - in fact, economies round the world - are climate change and the end of cheap oil. The end of cheap oil is something all Kiwis are starting to notice as they pay $70 or $80 to fill up their cars. If we do nothing, it won't be long before only the very rich can afford to drive their cars as much as we all do now, and before business is faced with skyrocketing transport costs that make them financially unviable.

Faced with these two pressing environmental challenges, the National Party advocates doing nothing. Although the Greens, working with Labour, want to future-proof our economy against these looming environmental threats, National would rather pretend they're not happening at all.

With reactionary right-wing business interests that prefer short-term profit over long-term economic preparation, National stubbornly rejects the plainly obvious fact that if we do nothing to prepare for climate change and the end of cheap oil, many Kiwi businesses will go under.

National is advocating pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto, while by no means perfect, is the only mechanism humanity has found for joint action to share the cost of limiting climate change. Only two countries stand out as opposing Kyoto: the United States and Australia. (That's their governments, not their people.) National wants New Zealand to join them out on this environmental limb - part of the climate change problem rather than part of the solution. As with the nuclear issue and illegal invasions of other countries, on climate change National prefers the George W. Bush approach to the principled, multilateral approach.

We also know that the cheap oil on which our civilisation was built is rapidly running out. National denies the problem, but the Greens have real solutions, in the areas of energy and transport, that will allow us to adapt.

We want much greater investment in buses, ferries and trains because we know that soon only the very rich will be able to afford to drive to and from work. We're also concerned that businesses will soon find it unaffordable to move goods by truck, so we want to re-build New Zealand's capacity to move freight on rail and coastal shipping.

We want the cars brought into the country from now on to go twice as far on a tankful, so will encourage this with rebates on annual registration.

We want to develop alternatives to fossil fuels, such as biofuels, so that when cheap oil starts becoming a pipe-dream, we have already made other energy sources a reality.

Instead, National wants to pour all transport funding into roads, which all analysis shows will increase congestion rather than solve it. Aucklanders realise this - more than three-quarters of them want a transport future that prioritises public transport, cycling and walking.

When National warns of increased congestion as a result of our transport policies, it ignores all research showing that continuing on the road we're travelling will lead only to the potholes of worse congestion, higher transport costs and less prosperity.

Our energy policies will also protect us from the worst effects of climate change and the end of cheap oil: we want to put half a million solar water-heating panels on Kiwi homes, reject coal and promote wind. We need to do more with the energy we've got, so we'll also be encouraging energy efficiency initiatives at every opportunity.

Getting rid of fixed line charges on electricity and helping Kiwis to insulate their homes will mean people will be rewarded for using less power while remaining warm in the process. Our policies are about choice: about making it easier to do things smarter, cleaner and more efficiently.

The Government has a role in helping businesses to develop new, cleaner technologies to make the transition from the age of cheap oil to the age of renewable resources and efficiency. Only dinosaur businesses and dinosaur politicians could oppose this.

As part of our commitment to helping New Zealand business towards a sustainable future, the Greens are unveiling another of our Green Solutions. These have been a series of Green ideas released during the election campaign. We have floated the idea of free wellness checks for all New Zealanders and a toolbox for preparing for the end of cheap oil.

Today, we offer a third Green Solution, which will help to stop the rape of tropical forests in developing countries and at the same time support sustainable Kiwi businesses.

Six years ago, the Labour Government, with the help of the Greens, stopped the logging of the last of our old-growth forests on public land. Okarito, Saltwater and the Buller beech forests are now protected for all to enjoy, and attract a thriving tourist industry.

But we have a responsibility not just for the chainsaws we hold, but for the products we buy. Timber from West Coast forests has been replaced partly by imports of tropical hardwoods illegally logged from Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the Solomons and Sarawak.

This undercuts wood products made from sustainably grown timber. In just the past month, two New Zealand furniture factories in Waimate have shut up shop, blaming cheap imports. Our Green solution is an immediate ban on the importation of all illegally logged timber and products made from it.

There are now traceability schemes which make it possible to tell that timber has been cut legally. But legality is not enough. We would phase in a requirement for all timber and timber products to come from certified, sustainably managed forests.

The Indonesian Government has asked for help - 90 per cent of the logging of its forests is illegal. If there is no market, it will stop. This is an example of the Green approach to business: remove unfair competition from illegal businesses and make it profitable to care for the Earth and for people.