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"A country at war with itself" |
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Green Party view on New Zealand's '98 Budget |
"This is a budget designed for a country at war" said Green Leaders Jeanette Fitzsimons and Rod Donald.
"A country with such a desperate shortage of labour that sick people and sole parents of young children have to be sent out to work against their will in the munitions factories and their children put in care."
"But there are no munitions factories. There are no jobs. There is a surplus of labour, and NZ is at war only with itself. Why not let those parents who want to, concentrate on raising their children?
"Predictably the Coalition's second budget fails to tackle the real issues facing New Zealand.
"Winston Peters claims it addresses concerns of fairness, equity, inclusion and consultation. Instead it promotes greed, competition, social breakdown and environmental inertia.
"It is based on the theory that there are no communities, only individuals.
"A Green budget would turn both new right and traditional economic thinking on their heads. Our starting point would be our nation and our planet's ability to support human activities.
"A Green budget would face up to the underlying health issues; would aim to generate real jobs in strong local economies, to reduce our dependence on imports, to revitalise provincial areas and to encourage businesses to be more environmentally responsible.
"The Coalition's budget has no commitment to energy planning and conservation, no commitment to public transport and no serious attempt to help our primary producers develop an international market advantage by converting to organic production.
"Above all, it is a mean budget which blames the victims and fails to offer New Zealanders a sustainable future," Rod Donald and Jeanette Fitzsimons said.
Detailed reaction follows. | Economy | Health | Environment | Energy | Roading | Business, Jobs | Organics |
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It is based on a philosophy of sacrificing the people to the economy, rather than managing the economy for the wellbeing of the people. It tries to turn every aspect of life into a financial transaction; it says no-one is contributing to society unless they are being paid through the market.
There is no recognition in this budget that the real threats to our economy include global climate change, the huge drag of resource and energy waste, toxic contamination, and the imminent loss of our "clean, green" marketing advantage. These effects are already costing us; they threaten to overwhelm our economy if urgent steps are not taken.
The tip of that iceberg is starting to appear in this year's budget. NZ has hundreds of contaminated sites which will cost millions to clean up when the technology is available and the health or trade effects force action. These are placed under "unquantified contingent liabilities" in the Budget.
One specific item listed concerns the sale of the Forestry Corporation to Fletchers. Both parties knew there was serious ground contamination from timber treatment chemicals. Under the sale contract the Crown is liable for all on site clean up costs over $50 million and half of those between $30 and $50 million. They have also agreed to pay for all costs and losses from contamination affecting surrounding land and water. This is unlimited in time and amount. And this is just one site.
There are many other sites, such as dieldrin dumps in Southland, created by the Crown on what is now private land. No-one knows what the clean up will cost, or in some cases how to do it. It is a cost future generations will have to meet, either by cleaning it up, or by suffering the loss of export markets as the contamination becomes known and the high health costs of people affected by continuing pollution. None of these costs are budgetted for. They may be "unquantified" at present but they are not unreal.
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With no water quality standards, no controls on toxic spray drift, new
threats to our food supply from unlabelled genetically modified foods, and continued use of toxic chemicals banned elsewhere, allergies, immune system damage and cancer will continue to increase. A Green budget would put substantial money into addressing the causes of illness.
Turning CHEs into hospitals will not help.
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The Ministry for the Environment's core vote has actually been cut by nearly $400,000 or nearly 3%. Not only are environmental concerns never integrated into economic policy; even the separate category "environment" is becoming a lower and lower priority for this government.
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The Greens have long advocated a carbon tax which should be spent partly on reducing income tax and partly on encouraging the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Instead, the only initiative the Government has ever taken to reduce emissions is being savagely slashed. For several years the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, on a minimal budget, has been quietly improving the energy efficiency of our economy. There is still much to do and with more money it could do it. NZ's energy use has been commented on by the OECD as particularly inefficient and needing investment in efficiency measures for economic, as well as environmental reasons.
EECA's operating budget has been slashed by $453,000, or 10%. But it's worse than that - it comes on top of a 25% cut last year.
The most savage cut, additional to the numbers above, is to the budget that funds insulation, water heater wraps, draught proofing and other
improvements to low income homes. That has been cut by a third. Cold and
damp houses are a major source of discomfort and illness among increasing
numbers of people who cannot afford heating. This fund improves their
comfort and lowers their heating costs, while reducing greenhouse gases. It is a further attack on the living standards of the most vulnerable, and on the environment.
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The real impact of the new $140 million for roading will be to increase even further the gross imbalance in investment between roads and public transport. It is this imbalance which is clogging roads in the Auckland rush hour and widening roads or building more motorways will lead to more traffic, more congestion and more spending, depriving the rural areas of the roading funds they need.
There is still no intention to include environmental pricing in the new
model, where road users pay for the environmental and social costs they
cause to the rest of the economy. The "polluter pays" principle demands that road users not be subsidised this way. The first step would, of course be the carbon tax, which could be used to reduce other taxes.
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The budget doesn't stop at cutting off support to businesses which have the potential to expand. It deliberately puts companies out of business. The decision to cut tariffs on motor vehicle imports from 22.5% to zero over night not only confirms the closure of four assembly plants with the loss of 1,100 jobs in communities which already have high levels of unemployment. The tariff cut also threatens a further 4,000 jobs in the components industry. The assemblers were given $10M to assist with the transition but the components industry got nothing. Proposed tariff cuts threaten 25,000 more jobs in the clothing, textile and footware industries. No wonder business confidence is at a seven year low.
Producer Boards have also been told they will lose their statutory backing from the government. At a time when New Zealand has suffered three annual trade deficits in a row the marketers of the great majority of our exports are about to have their effectiveness seriously undermined as the government pursues its free trade agenda.
Putting on a good show at next year's APEC conference will cost the country $44M but we are told this is a small price to pay for the potential gains. These gains certainly don't show up in the budget's economic outlook which projects imports still exceeding exports and the current account deficit increasing to over $8B. While the forecast shows a drop in the rate of unemployment to 6.7% this figure is based on a current year estimate of 6.9% which ended up being 7.1%.
Meanwhile the government refuses to lift the restriction which stops the Tourism Board from promoting domestic tourism: a commonsense strategy that would create jobs, encourage New Zealanders to holiday at home, save the high energy costs of international travel, and improve our balance of payments deficit.
We cannot solve the balance of payments crisis by continuing to lower import prices by removing tariffs and copyright controls, while at the same time destroying local production. A green budget would aim to revitalise communities by encouraging local production, fostering local banking and services, keeping local jobs and reducing our dependence on imports.
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Organic farming in particular remains a significantly under-developed enterprise with huge market potential. It also produces healthier food without the harmful side effects of chemical residues, loss of soil structure and spray drift. Organic farming co-operatives could become the centre of small rural based communities. The Greens would establish an organics marketing body to help overcome the difficulties willing buyers have in sourcing produce, and that willing sellers have in locating markets. Information networks and transitional help for those giving up chemical farming are needed too.
Boosting energy efficiency funding would also create jobs. It is well established that improving energy efficiency by insulating houses, maintaining air conditioning systems, or tuning cars, employs far more people than energy production in power stations or mines.
Instead of promoting commonsense and creative employment initiatives the government is proceeding with its punitive work for the dole scheme which offers no real future for jobseekers and is likely to destroy one real job for every four 'make work' placements. Despite the glaring lack of real jobs the budget intends not only to force unemployed people to work for their dole, but also to make the sick, widows and sole parents with children as young as six to work for their benefits. The so called community wage scheme is an admission by the government that under its mismanagement there will never be enough paid work to go around.
A Green budget would address the underlying issues of why families can't survive on the equivalent of one fulltime wage; why income disparity is growing in New Zealand; and why so many people are overworked while others have no work at all. The Greens would not, as this budget does, make parents put their children in paid childcare and force them to do community work. Bringing up children should be valued in its own right, as should the enormous voluntary contribution most New Zealanders already make to their community in a whole range of ways.
-----Original Message----- Sent: Saturday, 16 May 1998 06:00 To: Judith Lofley Subject: green budget
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