14 October 2008
Labour heats up the left overs and promises hot air
Labour's sustainable infrastructure announcement is a disappointing mixture of already-announced initiatives and
promises so vague they have no real meaning, the Green Party says.
"Retrofitting state homes is a top priority for the Green Party. So important, in fact, that we secured the over $50
million to insulate all state homes in last year's budget. On top of that, the Greens negotiated a $1 billion dollar
Green Homes Fund to retrofit remaining substandard houses as part of our support for the Emissions Trading Scheme. For
Labour to come out now and announce this as new policy is just not credible," Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons says.
"The commitment to extending electric rail in Auckland is vague, and, given that the initial electrification programme
was already secured after intense pressure from the Green Party and others, it is again very unclear whether there is
anything more than warmed up leftovers on offer. Yes, we need better public transport, but it is very unclear whether
Labour's commitment has any teeth at all," she says.
"The 90 percent renewable target for energy generation, once again already in legislation, has a big exemption, which
will allow the building of more gas powered stations - on top of the many gas powered stations Labour has already built.
Co-Leader Russel Norman says, "Labour makes further vague claims to clean up rivers - this after overseeing a massive
increase in pollution and after proposing a national policy statement on freshwater management that is so full of holes
that you could driver a tanker-load of effluent through it.
"Support for local sewerage schemes has only been $10 million over the last three years. This is completely inadequate
to address the problem.
"The really new initiative that we strongly support is the guaranteed annual adjustments to the minimum wage in line
with the CPI or the average wage," Dr Norman says.
ENDS