John Key is damaging our economy

An article in The Economist magazine pointing out the lack of reality behind New Zealand’s 100% Pure branding, shows that John Key’s attacks on the environment are damaging our economy, the Green Party said today.

The Economist article follows on the footsteps of similar articles in the Guardian and the New York Times.

“Key’s decisions to mine in national parks, weaken the Emissions Trading Scheme, promote massive irrigation schemes in Canterbury, and a litany of other attacks on the environment, all undercut the clean green branding on which New Zealand’s exports depend,” said Green Party Co-Leader Russel Norman.

Previous research has shown that New Zealand’s clean green branding is worth billions to our exporters.

“By continuing to attack the environment, the Government is undermining years of work by successive New Zealand governments to build an extremely valuable brand,” said Dr Norman.

“John Key repeats the mantra of balancing the environment against the economy — that is the idea that he will degrade the environment in order to grow the economy. In reality, he is now both degrading the environment and damaging the economy at the same time.

“It’s time the Government learnt the basic truth that our economy depends on a healthy environment. And every move to degrade our environment will result in damage to our $21 billion-dollar-a-year tourism industry and all our other primary produce exporters.

“A smart economy is one that protects and builds upon our brand equity—not one that gambles it away for short-term profit.”

Link to the Economist’s “It’s not easy seeming green” article:
http://www.economist.com/world/international/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15763381