National had a reasonable but unspectacular position on tackling pollution and the climate crisis but is now showing its true colours. Their pre-election environmental stance was as solid as a house of cards in Cyclone Gabrielle when Seymour and Jones got a say.
Remember those grand promises of cleaning up freshwater, boosting biodiversity, and delivering for the climate? Yeah, forget those. Instead, we get a laundry list of policy reversals that read like a handbook on how to dismantle environmental progress.
Forget freshwater protection or keeping mining out of Coromandel’s native forests when you let farmers off the hook for another decade for their climate and river pollution and welcome open cast mining and tailings dams in Mercury Bay, and oil and gas drilling, right?
And don’t even get me started on meeting our commitments to the Paris Climate Agreement. It’s like watching someone sign a gym membership and then proceed to pig out on KFC.
But hey, why worry about international repercussions or the fact that our export partners are light years ahead in environmental standards? Let’s just keep living in our little bubble of denial while the rest of the world moves forward.
So, congratulations, National. You’ve managed to not only disappoint your supporters but also put the future of our environment and economy at risk. Bravo.
