5 November 2004

My Trees Are Your Trees

New Zealand First is flabbergasted at the display of back-door socialism by Ministry of Environment officials on forestry policy.

Yesterday, the Local Government and Environment select committee heard comment from the Ministry about their proposed plans for permanent forest plantings.

“What their policy basically proposes is that landowners will be encouraged to support permanent forest plantings for the state," said environment spokesperson Jim Peters.

“When I asked about funding and incentives to persuade future landowners to move to this form of land use, I was amazed to find that the proposed carbon credits, arbitrarily acquired from present forest owners, were to be used to help support this new form of socialism.

“This illustrates very clearly the minority Labour Government’s propensity and belief that they can spend our money better than we can. New Labour is just like old Labour – we know better.”

“New Zealand First will be very pleased to receive comments from the industry and stakeholders,” said Mr Peters.

ENDS

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