David Clark, Minister of State Owned Enterprises, said if KiwiRail stopped hauling coal it's likely the task would move to road and create further emissions from increased vehicle movements.
He's right, but misses the point. The point is we need a fast and fair phase-out of coal, beginning yesterday. The point is the Government needs to deal with the climate crisis the way they're dealing with Covid and the point is, they're not. They're not prepared to phase out coal until 2037. That's close to another 100 million tonnes of CO2 dumped into our children's atmosphere.
The climate crisis is real and here now. Like Covid, to go slow is to lose. The Government has promised to phase coal out of schools and hospitals by 2025. Good for them, but we can't stop there.
I remember the bustling affair that was the Wanganui East Town Railway workshops. Their gates closed in 1986 putting 450 people out of work. But Covid has revealed the cracks in our global supply chain. Local jobs and manufacturing, the likes of Hillside and East Town, have a big part to play in our future low-carbon economy. We need to recreate the skills right here at home, and fast.
I was 19 years too late to get the train home to Dunedin from the North Island. You can still catch rail from Picton to Christchurch on winter weekends and the Coastal Pacific scenery is glorious, but KiwiRail abandons passengers at Christchurch.
Here's my wish to ministers Robertson and Clark: an electric passenger train from Whangarei to Invercargill, and a liveable future climate for my grandkids.
Rosemary Penwarden is a Whanganui-born-and-bred grandmother, now living an off-grid low-carbon lifestyle on 4 hectares of land near Dunedin.
