Long term readers of The Hive will be aware of our great admiration of the Maori Party. We were therefore very pleased to have this admiration justified by a statement issued this morning by Turiana Turia and Pita Sharples. Sharples and Turia seems to be rightly suggesting a delay in the ETS in favour of a national consensus on the response to the energy crisis. Readers of The Hive will also be aware of our strong support for non-partisan policy responses to important issues. We also admire the attack on Winston.
This from Dr Sharples and Ms Turia
“Some party leaders have said they will only support an ETS if it doesn’t cost households too much. If that’s what they really think, then they need to front up to the real polluters, to big business and industrial farmers, and make sure they pay their fair share,” said Mrs Turia.
“Under the current ETS, 90% of the emissions costs fall on households, while major energy users and industrial dairy giants have no incentive to change their behaviour, because of all the exemptions and credits they are given. It’s outrageous! The ones who need exemptions and credits are families, who have already been hit by increased prices of petrol, milk and cheese - not the big polluters, who are making record profits,” she said.
“The ETS must make polluters pay the costs of their emissions. If they then pass on those Kyoto costs to consumers, at least everyone can see what is happening, and can take some action to reduce the impact. The ETS, as it stands now, simply passes the buck from business onto future taxpayers,” said Mrs Turia.
“Climate change is a huge global problem,” said Dr Sharples. “But in the short term, the scarcity of cheap energy will be more urgent, so let’s deal with that one for a start.”
“We will be inviting all other parties to adopt our recommendation to establish an urgent Cross-party Parliamentary Commission to develop an over-arching response to the oil crisis,” he said.
“Meanwhile there’s heaps we can all commit to, by reusing, recycling, repairing, respecting, replacing, and upskilling with the information we need to reduce our dependence on oil, as we head into a low energy future,” said Dr Sharples and Mrs Turia.
