Labour has delivered the second blow to any hope for an aspirational approach to New Zealand’s roll in the climate/economy/environment/extinction crises. National was proud of their first follower approach whereby New Zealand could do nothing until the rest of the world fell into line. Instead Jacinda Adern spoke bravely about our new ‘nuclear-free moment’ and seemed to offer optimism that we are going to see more than lip-service paid to the perils of our age.
Last month Labour walked away from the Capital Gains Tax and any hope that there would be a re-balance of the economy away from greed and individualism to a caring society where incomes, healthcare and education might be fairly shared across the spectrum. Instead we have teachers striking to restore the integrity and standing of their careers and the Reserve Bank’s cuts to the cash rate nudging the elderly to take their savings out of term deposits to buy another house.
Yesterday Labour announced we are going to do everything we can to keep global warming to the “extremely unlikely” 1.5 degree figure that was set in Paris in 2016. To achieve this, urban New Zealand will assume the burden while rural New Zealand gets a free pass. Methane is apparently the price of keeping our economy where it has been since we first chopped all the trees down. The commitment to business-as-usual means continued high stocking rates, continued pollution and decreasing bio-diversity.
It is time to acknowledge recent alarming reports from the IPCC and UN and declare a climate and environment emergency. We must admit to ourselves that the “environment and not agriculture is the backbone of the New Zealand economy”. Business as usual in the agriculture sector is the opposite of what is required.
Labours failure to address the existential crises facing the world means we might as well have voted National or even ACT for all the difference it makes. The farmers and National will bleat about how tough they have it, but will secretly be pleased.