The Government's arrogance towards the West Coast has reached new heights - it's broken its own pre-election promises to
Coasters but continues to dismiss their protests out-of-hand, Opposition Forestry spokesperson Phil Heatley said today.
The Prime Minister has tried to dismiss the opposition and protests from Coasters about the Government's $100 million
package claiming it was Labour's policy at election time, and they had the mandate to implement it.
"The Prime Minister has tripped herself up.
"The Government has in fact broken five of the six of its pre-election promises it made to Coasters in its special West
Coast pledge card.
Mr Heatley today tabled in Parliament a copy of Labour's pre-election pledge to West Coasters and challenged the
Government to say if it would honour the pledges.
"It is clear they won't. The opposition to what the Government is doing to the Coast is real and heart-felt.
"The Prime Minister's arrogant dismissal of the concerns is offensive. "The Prime Minister dismisses
West Coasters as 'not democratic.' But the reality is the Government does whatever it likes and nobody may dare question
it. It has no mandate for the Economic Development Package which is totally contradictory to its pledge that promised
the Coast ownership of forests, funding for sewage schemes, royalties on mining, and rates on Conservation land," Mr
Heatley said.
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