We blogged yesterday about the Green Party having voted against the Vulnerable Children Bill. We do note however that not all Green MP's voted, and wonder if there was dissension in the ranks.
Parliament will go into urgency next week, and once again, the Greens will oppose a Government measure. Nick Smith explains the proposed legislation:
We wonder what Green MP Kevin Hague makes of all this. He is West Coast-based, and will understand only too well the need for jobs and income for his fellow Coasters. Will he break ranks and vote in favour of legislation that will provide direct economic benefits to his own community? Would the Greens ever allow that to happen?
Once again though, the Greens are showing why they have never been part of a formal coalition government. Opposing everything a government does is easy; just ask Winston Peters who is the consummate opposition politician, but is a three-time failure in government.
Governing is all about compromise. By placing limits on the areas from which fallen trees can and cannot be extracted, Dr Smith has achieved a compromise between protecting a pristine and unique area of New Zealand, and making something good out of the damage wreaked by Cyclone Ita.
Clearly, the Greens would rather let the trees rot and become bug fodder than have anyone go in and extract high-value native timber which will be in high demand. As recently as March, the Greens were proposing to gift $1m to the first person to build a 10-story skyscraper from wood as they tried to out-bribe Labour for the affections of the forestry industry. We doubt today that the forestry industry will be wanting anything to do with the Greens.
It is telling when the ideological purity of the Greens prevents them from supporting legislation that will directly benefit one of New Zealand's poorer regions. After Jan Logie's comments about child poverty on Thursday, you'd think the Greens would be in favour of a law change that was going to provide jobs to West Coasters, put more money into the community, more food on tables and generally benefit the region. But no; they would clearly prefer that the bugs of the forest get a feed as valuable native trees rot away in the wilderness.
Parliament will go into urgency next week, and once again, the Greens will oppose a Government measure. Nick Smith explains the proposed legislation:
Government to allow recovery of West Coast windfall timber
Special legislation is to be passed by Parliament to enable the recovery of high value native timber blown over in Cyclone Ita on West Coast public conservation land, Dr Nick Smith announced today.
“We need to take a pragmatic approach and enable the timber to be recovered where it can be done so safely and with minimal environmental impact. This initiative will provide welcome jobs and economic opportunities for the West Coast at a difficult time, and will provide a financial return to DOC that can be reinvested in conservation work,” Dr Smith says.
Cyclone Ita hit the West Coast on 17 April this year and caused the worst windfall damage in generations, felling an estimated 20,000 hectares of forest and causing significant damage to a further 200,000 hectares.
The West Coast Windblown Timber (Conservation Lands) Bill confines the recovery of useable wood to areas affected by Cyclone Ita and specifically excludes World Heritage Areas, national parks, ecological areas and the white heron sanctuary reserve at Whataroa. Authorisations are only to be issued where the Department’s Director-General is satisfied the proposed method of removing the timber is safe for workers and the public, and minimises environmental impacts. The recovery of timber is limited until 1 July 2019 when the Bill expires. All revenue from royalties will go to the Department of Conservation.
“A law change is needed because the current Conservation Act makes no provision for timber recovery in this sort of extreme event. The Bill will be introduced and passed by Parliament next week under urgency. This is necessary because the large volumes of beech timber will soon deteriorate with sap stain and borer. I am grateful for the common sense support from the United Future and Māori Parties that are enabling Parliament to quickly resolve this issue.
“It is estimated that several million cubic metres of beech, rimu, matai, totara and miro trees have been felled. Stumpage prices for rimu are $250 per cubic metre, and $60 per cubic metre for beech. It is not possible to estimate the volume and value of timber to be extracted because the safety and environmental constraints may require high cost options like the use of helicopters. This law change will enable the detailed work to be done by operators on recovery proposals so as to determine where recovery is viable and safe.
“It may be appropriate to consider a permanent change to the Conservation Act to enable windblown timber in these sorts of situations to be recovered in future, but I am reluctant to do so with urgent legislation of this sort. The Department of Conservation will be commissioning research on the effects on forest regrowth and ecology by comparing similar windblown areas where timber has and has not been recovered to help make a long-term policy decision on this issue.
“It is a tragedy that so much forest has been wrecked by Cyclone Ita but no good purpose is served by leaving it all to rot. The wood will displace some of the $65 million of tropical hardwoods we import each year and give New Zealanders access to our own beautiful native timbers,” Dr Smith concluded.
The TV footage we saw last night showed the level of the cyclone damage on the West Coast. We had no idea how widespread that damage was. Thousands of trees were felled by the storm, and are strewn across thousands of hectares of the West Coast.
Nick Smith already has the support of the Maori Party and United Future to pass this legislation, and we would expect Damien O'Connor to convince his fellow Labour MP's to support the law change. It will, after all, have direct benefits for the people of Mr O'Connor's constituency.
But the Greens have already indicated they will fight this tooth and nail. Eugenie Sage put out this presser yesterday:
A storm is no reason to change our conservation law
New Zealand’s wild conservation land should be protected from logging, the Green Party said today.
National has announced plans to allow logging of native forest on public land on the West Coast damaged in Cyclone Ita.
“It was illegal to log these forests, a storm is no reason to change the law,” Green Party conservation spokesperson Eugenie Sage said today.
“New Zealanders fought for years to end native logging and protect the West Coast’s forests. We shouldn’t turn back the clock.
“It’s a bad precedent to change the law on a case by case, storm by storm basis. The public are not even going to get a say, the law will be pushed through under urgency.
“This is more boom and bust short term thinking from this Government for the West Coast. This proposal isn’t going to create sustainable long term jobs.
“Weakening our conservation law sets a dangerous precedent.
“Nowhere is protected from this Government. National is happy to allow our rivers to be too polluted to swim in, let the Maui’s Dolphin go extinct, and wanted to open up our national parks for mining. We can’t let them weaken our conservation law.
“It doesn’t matter how careful you are. By removing these trees we are taking away precious nutrients that will feed the next forest giants.
“We don’t need to restart the battles of the 1990’s, National needs to leave our protected forests alone.
“National is on the wrong path with this proposal, New Zealanders love our native forests and National needs to leave them alone,” said Ms Sage.
“The Department of Conservation shouldn’t have to allow logging of our native forests to pay for pest control, National needs to fund DOC properly,” said Ms Sage.
We wonder what Green MP Kevin Hague makes of all this. He is West Coast-based, and will understand only too well the need for jobs and income for his fellow Coasters. Will he break ranks and vote in favour of legislation that will provide direct economic benefits to his own community? Would the Greens ever allow that to happen?
Once again though, the Greens are showing why they have never been part of a formal coalition government. Opposing everything a government does is easy; just ask Winston Peters who is the consummate opposition politician, but is a three-time failure in government.
Governing is all about compromise. By placing limits on the areas from which fallen trees can and cannot be extracted, Dr Smith has achieved a compromise between protecting a pristine and unique area of New Zealand, and making something good out of the damage wreaked by Cyclone Ita.
Clearly, the Greens would rather let the trees rot and become bug fodder than have anyone go in and extract high-value native timber which will be in high demand. As recently as March, the Greens were proposing to gift $1m to the first person to build a 10-story skyscraper from wood as they tried to out-bribe Labour for the affections of the forestry industry. We doubt today that the forestry industry will be wanting anything to do with the Greens.
It is telling when the ideological purity of the Greens prevents them from supporting legislation that will directly benefit one of New Zealand's poorer regions. After Jan Logie's comments about child poverty on Thursday, you'd think the Greens would be in favour of a law change that was going to provide jobs to West Coasters, put more money into the community, more food on tables and generally benefit the region. But no; they would clearly prefer that the bugs of the forest get a feed as valuable native trees rot away in the wilderness.
