Independent environment reporting essential

A report calling for legislation to guarantee regular independent reporting about the environment in New Zealand was welcomed by the Green Party today.

“History has shown that governments manipulate environmental data if it doesn’t suit them,” Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman said.

“Because of this we need to make sure that regular, independent reporting on the state of our environment is guaranteed by law.”

Dr Norman was commenting on the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s ‘How Clean is New Zealand’ report, released today.

“New Zealand is the only country in the OECD without an ongoing commitment in law to regularly monitor the state of our environment,” Dr Norman said.

“For a country that brands itself as ‘clean and green’ this is unacceptable.”

In 2008, the Green Party revealed that Chapter 13 of the 2007 State of the Environment Report had been suppressed by the Labour government.

“The suppressed chapter suggested that increased car use, dairy intensification, and overconsumption were driving environmental decline,” Dr Norman said.

“It concluded that regulation was needed to protect the environment and our clean green reputation.

“Evidently the government at the time didn’t want to hear this, or let New Zealanders hear it, so the chapter was suppressed until the Green Party found and released it.

“As the PCE notes in her report, this incident highlights why it is so important to have environmental reporting that is independent of the government of the day.

“This need is even more acute with the current government, which has declared war on the environment on numerous fronts, including opening up our most protected conservation land to mining and manipulating behind the scenes to fast-track the draining and polluting of Canterbury’s rivers to maximise dairy corporations’ profits,” Dr Norman said.

References:

The Green Party’s 2008 release revealing the suppressed chapter of the 2007 report: http://www.greens.org.nz/press-releases/greens-release-secret-13th-chapter-enviro-report-call-independent-oversight-future-re

The PCE’s report can be downloaded from: www.pce.parliament.nz