It seems that National has no problem with acknowledging that the environment is an important economic issue when it is presented with an opportunity to dig some of it up, send it offshore, and burn it. It is odd, then, that when it is pointed out to National members that our carefully balanced natural environment is the very thing on which our future economic success depends, they are a lot less willing to agree. It is fair to assume that their reluctance to see this simple truth explains many of the damaging cuts that have been made to Vote Environment and Vote Conservation while this Government has held office. These cuts and this Government’s neglect of the most important part of our economy are what I want to address my remarks to this evening.

If this Budget reveals one thing about this Government’s plan for the environment, it is that there is none, except for the intention to intensify mining and dairying, which will work to the detriment of our economy in the long run, rather than providing the many benefits that would have been gained from investments in cleantech, for example, which, so far, have been completely ignored. In respect of mining, I think it is very important that we have this on record: this Government has no regard for the natural environment or for the clean, green image that our country relies on. It has no respect for the importance of preserving our national parks, and, given the chance, it will have little regard for public opinion and for the fact that many New Zealanders absolutely cherish our natural assets.

Let us make it clear: the Government’s mining backdown was just like a dog running away, with its tail between its legs. It was a late attempt to cover for having made itself look bad. This backdown changes neither the Government’s true intention nor its disregard for the land protected under schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act. At another point in time, the Government’s move might have been different. Given the chance, it is clear from the rhetoric we have heard over the past months that this Government will mine our most precious conservation estate, and this is something New Zealanders should, and will, remember at the next election.

If National truly cared about the environment, it would have invested in it in this Budget, but it did not. The Government has failed even to compensate for the degrading cuts made in the first Budget of its term in office. There has been no attempt to correct the slashing of funds to great programmes like Enviroschools. Thank goodness so many schools have just got on with it and found the money in their existing budgets, even though they have had to scrimp and save out of other areas in order to continue those programmes.

There has been no attempt to remedy the fact that the Government cut all initiatives to promote a carbon-neutral Public Service. Never mind that the public sector accounts for a whole third of our economic activity. The Government knows that it is ignoring the need to invest in sustainability, to the extent that it has tried to mislead people into thinking that it has invested. For instance, it has tried to portray an extra $500 million appropriated to the emissions trading scheme as an extra investment, when in reality it just represents a change in the uptake in credits for forestry. Thank goodness there is that uptake, but at the very least the Minister in the chair, the Minister for the Environment, should represent it factually and honestly, not misleadingly, in the Budget documents. It is this deliberate deception that is most worrying. It shows that National knows it should be investing in sustainability and in our future, but it chooses not to; it just tries to fool people into thinking that it is.

This Government does not seem to understand the urgency of building a sustainable economy, as it is choosing inaction over action in so many areas. For example, we have seen the Government stall in areas such as air quality and freshwater management, under the guise of not rushing into decisions, but in reality it is just giving in to pressure from its industry allies, who do not want to pay their fair share for the pollution they cause. For example, industry has been given an extra 5 years to prepare for the new air quality standards, the introduction of which the Minister has pushed back all the way to 2018. Similarly, the Government’s changes to the Resource Management Act will make it a lot easier to move through the consents process, but they will fail to protect the environment in any way—again just helping National’s allies abuse our environment without having to pay for the abuse.

But without question, the most damaging and most unfair thing this Government has done in the area of the environment is its changes to the emissions trading scheme. It is just like the areas that I mentioned before. This is a case of National helping out its allies by subsidising their pollution, rather than doing what is right and fair and making them pay for what they emit. As if this were not bad enough, the people who pay the price for it are ordinary Kiwis, through increased power prices, along with other policies like the rise in GST.