Party leader Helen Houghton made her comments following the resignation of Molesworth Station manager Jim Ward over the uncertainty of the control of wilding pines on the iconic high country station.
“Get rid of all this nonsense,” she said. “It makes it harder for our farmers to feed the world. It makes it harder for industry. And it makes everything more expensive for consumers. It is well past time to end this green war on New Zealanders.”
The Emissions Trading Scheme and the government’s proposed Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Scheme – Forestry Conversions) Amendment Bill, is impacting on rural communities and the public’s outdoor recreation says the Conservative Party.
Helen Houghton said the problem is the Emissions Trading Scheme that was introduced by the John Key-led National government in 2008 and has since been amended on several occasions.
“Carbon farming is converting productive sheep and beef farms to pine wastelands. Government proposals currently in the pipeline are weak and fail to deal with the real problem, that is, the ETS,” she says. “The solution is simple — just get rid of it.”
The reality is nothing is being achieved for the planet as it would not stop floods or drought and was just keeping New Zealand poor.
“We could cover the whole country with pines and it wouldn’t save the planet from anything. The only people who benefit are those making money from the system and the politicians who use it to grow their power. It really is time to ditch the delusion of fighting climate change – it is just driving an endless string of bad policy decisions.”
The ETS is the problem and the solution is simple – just get rid of it said Helen Houghton.
The public’s outdoor recreation suffered. Productive farms, often family owned, through which trampers, hunters and anglers could get access with permission, were often locked by corporate and investment syndicates denying access.
The social impact of the ETS and carbon farming is considerable with the change from farm to pine monocultures also causing a decline in employment and a subsequent decline in rural populations and communities.
“The ETS is the problem,” says Helen Houghton. “But instead government is making the system more and more complicated, even introducing an annual ballot system to determine which land can be allocated carbon credits for new forest.”
The proposed change is “insane” since it would keep the price of carbon credits artificially high while the problem is the market distortion created by the ETS which inflates the value of forestry.
“The fact that Maori land needs to be exempted from the new restrictions to avoid breaching Treaty obligations gives a strong clue about how problematic the whole proposal is.”
Helen Houghton said the proposed law was “big government” thinking at its worst. The reality is that it will not stop extreme weather like floods or droughts.
“The only people to benefit from it will be the carbon farming speculators and investors and the corporates who can go on polluting by way of a cheap licence in carbon farming.”
She said it was past time to ditch the dream of fighting climate change, which naturally happens and to stop fear-mongering about extreme weather events. The very recent devastating Motueka valley flood had nothing to do with the delusion created by climate change ideology.
“There was a significant flood in Motueka in February 1877, known as the Old Man Flood or Great Earth Flood that swept through the township of Motueka,” she said. “Climate change and severe events have been happening for centuries.”
The Emissions Trading Scheme and the government’s proposed Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Scheme – Forestry Conversions) Amendment Bill, is impacting on rural communities and the public’s outdoor recreation says the Conservative Party.
Helen Houghton said the problem is the Emissions Trading Scheme that was introduced by the John Key-led National government in 2008 and has since been amended on several occasions.
“Carbon farming is converting productive sheep and beef farms to pine wastelands. Government proposals currently in the pipeline are weak and fail to deal with the real problem, that is, the ETS,” she says. “The solution is simple — just get rid of it.”
The reality is nothing is being achieved for the planet as it would not stop floods or drought and was just keeping New Zealand poor.
“We could cover the whole country with pines and it wouldn’t save the planet from anything. The only people who benefit are those making money from the system and the politicians who use it to grow their power. It really is time to ditch the delusion of fighting climate change – it is just driving an endless string of bad policy decisions.”
The ETS is the problem and the solution is simple – just get rid of it said Helen Houghton.
The public’s outdoor recreation suffered. Productive farms, often family owned, through which trampers, hunters and anglers could get access with permission, were often locked by corporate and investment syndicates denying access.
The social impact of the ETS and carbon farming is considerable with the change from farm to pine monocultures also causing a decline in employment and a subsequent decline in rural populations and communities.
“The ETS is the problem,” says Helen Houghton. “But instead government is making the system more and more complicated, even introducing an annual ballot system to determine which land can be allocated carbon credits for new forest.”
The proposed change is “insane” since it would keep the price of carbon credits artificially high while the problem is the market distortion created by the ETS which inflates the value of forestry.
“The fact that Maori land needs to be exempted from the new restrictions to avoid breaching Treaty obligations gives a strong clue about how problematic the whole proposal is.”
Helen Houghton said the proposed law was “big government” thinking at its worst. The reality is that it will not stop extreme weather like floods or droughts.
“The only people to benefit from it will be the carbon farming speculators and investors and the corporates who can go on polluting by way of a cheap licence in carbon farming.”
She said it was past time to ditch the dream of fighting climate change, which naturally happens and to stop fear-mongering about extreme weather events. The very recent devastating Motueka valley flood had nothing to do with the delusion created by climate change ideology.
“There was a significant flood in Motueka in February 1877, known as the Old Man Flood or Great Earth Flood that swept through the township of Motueka,” she said. “Climate change and severe events have been happening for centuries.”
**Tony Orman says he is not a member of this or any party, but it makes so much sense in this case.
Tony Orman, once a town and country planner, is now a part-time journalist and author. This article was first published HERE
2 comments:
Why is it necessary for Maori land to be exempt for the Emissions Trading Scheme? How does the Scheme breach the Treaty? Maori are claiming in the Waitangi Tribunal that Climate Change is a breach of the Treaty, yet they also claim the steps to fix the perceived problem is a breach of the Treaty. Exactly the type of logic that the Tribunal are likely to support with recommendations of further compensation.
There is nothing that NZ can do that will affect so called " Climate change " one iota.
If NZ slid under the Australian Plate tomorrow, the climate on Earth would stay exactly the same.
Therefore, stop messing with our productivity, get rid of ETS etc and return common sense to this country.
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