Comment: Jane Smith's protest list

Photo / File

Comment: As a former Ballance Farm Environment award winner, North Otago farmer Jane Smith understands the importance of environmental issues. However, she reckons there is some hypocrisy behind the latest round of climate change policies and protests. So she has compiled a list of problems she thinks we should actually be protesting.

• Our forebears fought in two world wars, went through decades of devastating diseases and experienced fierce debate over suffrage, yet I can't understand why our current generation can't even be bothered to vote in local body elections or vaccinate their children.

• According to American Political Scientist Roger Pielke, if the rest of the world was to enact the same scale of environmental martyrdom policy as New Zealand is planning by becoming net carbon zero by 2050, there would need to be a new nuclear power plant commissioned each and every day between now and January 2050.

• Why would a government that has a focus on being smokefree by 2025 be spending millions on a legalising cannabis referendum – coupled with the fact that at the same time we have a big problem with methamphetamine use.

• New Zealand has the highest suicide rate between 15-24 years, yet our mainstream media continues to bombard our younger generation with extremist, alarmist views and the rise of collective socialism, yet in the meantime we have the second highest rate of reported child abuse in the world.

Jane Smith. Photo / Supplied

• Child poverty, intergenerational social welfare dependency can be helped through economic growth and free trade, yet in my opinion we have a government that seem fixated on internal taxation, environmental martyrdom and chasing Nobel peace prizes. In my opinion they seem to have forgotten that every one per cent decrease in GDP generates a loss of over $800 million in tax collection.

Listen to Jamie Mackay interview Jane Smith about her list on The Country:

• There has been such a focus on the agricultural sector's use of water, we almost lost sight of losing some of our most productive land to "Legoland" housing developments.

• We have swapped first past the post for third past the post and seem to be held to ransom by a party that sits outside of cabinet.

• The ban on new oil and gas exploration is modelled to result in a massive increase in coal being imported into New Zealand from overseas! How does that look in the fossil fuel master plan? Just as a proposed decrease in livestock numbers will result in less efficient and highly subsidised overseas farmers producing food to replace New Zealand's lost opportunity.

- Jane Smith is a North Otago farmer and former Ballance Farm Environment Awards winner.