Environment

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• New Zealand’s environment would be better managed with fewer and clearer regulations, and stronger property rights.
• New Zealand’s tradable fishing permits are one example of this while water markets, if implemented, would be another. (more here)

• Ensure that sustainable development will take priority over growth in GDP as a national goal and ensure that education for sustainability is promoted by the Ministry of Education.
• Require products to clearly display an environmental rating based on an environmental impact standard.
• Making it a requirement to have a resource consent to convert land to ruminants or to intensify stocking rates and require councils to set limits on nitrogen and phosphate run-off, and allows regional councils to set charges for agricultural and industrial water use.
• Use mechanisms such as fringe benefit tax, public transport funding and other incentives to support the transition to low-emission and zero-emission vehicles, such as electric cars and buses.
• Set exposure limits for toxic chemicals that protect the whole human population, including at the most vulnerable stages of life, such as in utero and infancy. (more here)

• Labour will promulgate the long overdue National Policy Statement on indigenous biodiversity.
• Labour will call a halt to tenure review and instead enforce the terms of Crown pastoral leases, especially around lakes where landscape and access values are paramount.
• Labour will spend $20 million over the next 10 years to stop the spread of Kauri dieback disease.
• Labour will improve the process for formation of marine reserves and other marine protected areas. We will give consideration to use of an independent decision maker, as applies to applications for water conservation orders.
• Labour will introduce a revised National Policy Statement on water quality based on the principles of the Sheppard version. That means clean rivers and lakes will not be allowed to get dirty, dirty rivers and lakes will be cleaned up over a generation, and increases in intensity of land use will be controlled rather than permitted as of right. (more here)

• Repeal the present Emission Trading Scheme. We propose to replace it with policies and regulations that will lead to a genuine reduction in carbon emissions in a fair and just way.
• MANA believes the Precautionary Principle should be applied to the introduction of all new technology. This means that if an action or policy might cause harm to people or the environment, those who are taking the action or implementing the policy must prove that it is harmless, unless there is already scientific consensus to this effect.
• MANA supports the People’s Agreement On Climate Change And The Rights Of Mother Earth, The Indigenous People’s Declaration: ‘Mother Earth Can Live Without Us, But We Can’t Live Without Her’, and the Universal Declaration Of The Rights Of Mother Earth.
• Action Section 33 of the RMA which allows local authorities to hand over functions, powers and duties to iwi.
• Give hapū and iwi decision making powers equal to government and local government in developing environmental policies relating to biodiversity, prospecting, the management of coastal areas and RMA plans so they can exercise kaitiakitanga over lands, coastal areas, and waterways. (more here)

• Develop iwi environmental monitoring and evaluation on the quality of water in our rivers, lakes, seas and rural water supplies to homes and marae; and develop options for improving the water quality as a result.
• We will ensure that iwi, as Treaty partners, are involved in the governance, management and decision-making on freshwater within their rohe.
• Expand the mandate of the Environmental Protection Authority to include crown minerals and freshwater.
• Transfer the role of kaitiaki back from the Department of Conservation to mana whenua.
• We will subsidise organisations to undertake environmental impact assessments to support businesses becoming more environmental friendly. (more here)

• Implement robust national standards for water quality that will make a significant improvement to the way freshwater is managed.
• Commit $350 million, a fivefold increase in funding, for lake and river clean-ups.
• Invest $3.2 million for the better environmental management of our oceans.
• Complete a record number and area of marine reserves.
• Introduce a requirement for dairy cattle exclusion from waterways by 1 July 2017. (more here)

• Ensure that the state strikes a balance between economic progress and appropriate environmental goals.
• Oppose the Emissions Trading Scheme which sees profiteering from our environment. Advocate that the government and industry work together to address pollution.
• Accept that there is overwhelming scientific evidence of climate change.
• Seek higher Crown levies on minerals extracted, and return 25% royalties to the source regions.
• Make sure developers are responsible to their communities to avoid, remedy and mitigate adverse environmental effects. (more here)

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