the record speaks for itself

A summation from BLiP - The Standard comments section

"BLiP 10 February 2010 at 10:25 pm

One need only consider the actions of the John Key led National Ltd™ on the environmental front to catch a glimpse of what’s in store. Since November 2008, John Key has watched as his government:

- has been caught out repeatedly lying in the run up to and during the election campaign about its real intentions in relation to the environment

- celebrated the opening of the foreign-owned Pike River Coal Ltd mine on DOC land adjacent to the Paparoa National Park from which 1 megatonne of coal will be extracted per year for the next 20 years – Pike River Coal Ltd has announced that it has found additional coal in the national park

- removed a proposed efficiency standard (MEPS) on incandescent lightbulbs

- reversed a moratorium on building new gas/oil/coal power stations

- removed the bio fuel subsidy

- scrapped the scheme that would have penalised imported vehicles producing high emissions

- removed regulations for water efficient new housing

- renewed leases on sensitive high country farms which were meant to return to DOC

- reversed restrictions on the freeholding of vast swathes of land on the edge of the Southern Lakes

- arbitrarily excised 400 hectares from the brand new Oteake Conservation Park, including the most important and, ecologically, the rarest part of the new Park, the tussock and shrubland that went right down to the banks of the Manuherikia River, to enable future access to lignite

- said nothing to say in regard to the World Commission on Protected areas of IUCN’s severe criticism of its intention to investigate mineral resources and mining opportunities in protected conservation areas including our three UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Te Wahi Pounamu-South West New Zealand, Tongariro National Park and the Sub Antarctic Islands

- approved two prospecting permit applications lodged by Australian iron-ore giant Fortescue Metals Group subsidiary FMG Pacific lodged in June – areas covered by the two-year permits include an 8204-square-kilometre area of seabed adjoining the west coast from Cape Reinga to the Manukau Harbour and a 3798-square-kilometre prospecting area of land from Cape Reinga to the Kaipara Harbour including Ninety Mile Beach, the west side of the Aupouri Peninsula, Kaitaia and the Hokianga.

- approved an additional prospecting permit for Fortesque Metals in relation to 3568sq km right next door to the Kahurangi National Park where the Heaphy Track is

- was forced to release its Ministry of Economic Development (MED) report under the Official Information Act that proclaims “significant mineral potential” in the Fiordland, Kahurangi and Paparoa national parks – the report said the Waitutu area of the Fiordland National Park had sufficient petroleum reserves to be “worthy” of inclusion in a review of conservation land protected from mining

- secretly granted the minerals industry the right to veto proposed National Park boundaries and permission for any such vetoes to be kept confidential – in spite of recommendations from its own officials against any such a veto

- Minster of Conservation Tim Grosser, on 29 August 2009, called for caring New Zealanders to halt their “emotional hysteria” and recognise that conservation land should be mined for minerals and went on to say “Mining in a modern, technological way can have a negligible effect”

- Associate Minister of Conservation Kate Wilkinson, in an interview in “Canterbury Farming” rubbished her own department, DOC, suggesting it was incapable of looking after the high country reserves and parks under its control

- gutted the home insulation scheme

- pulled $300 million out of public transport, walking and cycling schemes and added it to a pot of $2 billion to ‘upgrade’ state highways

- changed the law to provide billions of dollar in subsidies for polluters via the ETS casino which is now a target for scamming by international criminals

- begun a process of gutting the Resource Management Act to make it difficult/impossible for the public to lodge appeals against developers

- removed the ability of Auckland to introduce a fuel levy to fund planned public transport upgrades

- left electrification of the national rail network up in the air without promised funding commitments

- removed the Ministry for the Environment’s programme to make Government Departments ‘carbon neutral’

- removed funding for public tv advertising on sustainability and energy efficiency

- pulled funding for small-town public litter bin recycling schemes

- cabinet ministers expressing public support the bulldozing of Fiordland

- reduced Department of Conservation funding by about $50 million over three years

- cancelled funding for the internationally acclaimed ‘Enviroschools’ programme

- usurped the democratic role of local Councils of determining policies for their citizens by requiring the abandonment of the efficient and well-established tree protection rules for urban areas

- set about revamping Auckland governance in a way that is likely to greatly reduce the ‘Environmental Watchdog’ role of the the current Regional Council

- removed Auckland’s metropolitan limits and opened the gateway for unfettered urban sprawl

- defended internationally the importation of rain-forest-wrecking palm kernel and stood silent while Federated Farmers called Greenpeace “terrorists”

- stood silent while Godfrey Bloom, a Member of the European Parliament and infamous Climate Change Denialist, publicly rejoiced in the 1985 bombing of the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior – who was doing so while standing on a dock next to the replacement vessel

- took a 0% emissions reduction target to Copenhagen. Yes, seriously, that isn’t a misprint – that was the lower bound of their negotiation platform – then missed the 01/02/10 deadline for commitment to action it had agreed to – meanwhile 55 of the 80 countries which attended did make the deadline

- secretly cancelled the internationally recognised scheme for the mandatory labelling of exotic woods to ensure the timber has not been taken from rain forests in direct contradiction of its own statements made at the 13th World Forestry Congress in Argentina

- supported the Department of Conservation’s decision to open up the pristine Cathedral Cove to an ice-cream franchise

- taken no action to reduce existing pollution pouring into the Manawatu River and is “leaving it up to industry” to come up with solutions to heal the river which was described by the Cawthorn Institute as “one of the worst polluted in the Western world”

- announced a $1.1 million industry subsidy to kick start marine farming without identifying no-go areas nor putting in place a consultation process for individuals, communities, and other general coastal users

- blamed New Zealanders after a Japanese whaling ship deliberately smashed into a smaller, more vulnerable craft in the open sea

- was forced to release documents under the Official Information Act which confirm that DOC has “giving up” on ecologically valuable high-country land in the Mackenzie Basin because of funding cuts. The released documents cite “statements made by ministers”, “diminishing funding” and the Government’s new high-country policies as reasons for the changed stance – the comments from DOC were made after Land Information New Zealand (Linz), which manages the tenure review process, ignored DOC’s previous conservation recommendations for the farms

It would appear that his “do nothing” public performance has masked the cunning setting of an ambush for his foreign mates to rape te whenua. And what have the maori party had to say about it all – kore!!

When it is all laid out like that it makes very sad and disturbing reading - doesn't it.