Greens’ MP Metiria Turei to attend Bluegreens conference

Green Party MP Metiria Turei has accepted an invitation from the Bluegreens, the National Party’s advisory group on environmental issues, and will attend some sessions at the Bluegreens annual conference at Te Anau Hotel this weekend.

“I am very pleased to accept the Bluegreens invitiation, and will be interested to engage with what National has to say constructively on such issues as climate change, biosecurity, conservation and outdoor recreation,” Mrs Turei says.

“National has effectively endorsed the Greens framework for managing climate change emissions, by accepting the Government’s emissions trading scheme – which contains several proposals first articulated by the Greens, such as coverage of all sectors, and linkage to an international price for emissions.

“I also look forward to engaging with the Bluegreens on how agriculture should make its contribution to emissions reduction. The taxpayer is currently being expected to subsidise the farming sector in a major way over our Kyoto obligations, and that cannot be justified – or easily reconciled, I would have thought, with National Party philosophy.

“Freshwater is a major issue for the South, with nearly 1 million hectares of irrigated land, situated mostly in Canterbury and Otago. Dairying, a high user of water resources, is also responsible for its serious degradation. Practical solutions to control intensification and to enforce resource consent conditions are needed, and I look forward to hearing the Bluegreens’ constructive proposals on how these issues should be tackled,” Mrs Turei says.