By Russel Norman
National spent much of its conference attacking the Green Party. What a compliment, shows we are the ones with all the good ideas.
The New Zealand economy under National is like a car drifting into the oncoming traffic. The driver assures us that the short-term forecasts look uncertain but, if we privatise the brakes and outsource the steering wheel, we'll be alright in the long run.
National has bungled its four years in Government. Debt has soared and 63,000 Kiwis have lost their jobs.
From a starting point of zero net Government debt it is now $40 billion. Its response in tough financial times? Borrow $2 billion to give the rich tax cuts, borrow $1.5b to subsidise polluters and spend $12b on new motorways.
The Green Party offers a credible alternative. Our economic plan will create jobs and wealth and be environmentally sustainable.
National’s grey plan for the economy is jobs poor, environmentally destructive and has resulted in job losses.
What the National Government doesn’t want people to know is that public transport investment is jobs rich.
Sustainable, clean energy creates three times as many jobs as investing in fossil fuels. Compare that to 20,000 manufacturing jobs gone under National.
Having scraped the gunk from the bottom of the barrel for ideas National is selling off assets. That’s so short-term. Take the money and run rather than pick up the profits every year.
The National Government’s other genius plan is to rip into our national parks and allow risky oil drilling in our oceans.
Apart from the environmental danger and damage this causes it just doesn’t make financial sense.
Mining doesn’t employ many people, 5500, while there are 92,000 people in tourism and 97,000 in agriculture. Why put that at risk by rubber stamping unsafe mining proposals?
You can see why the Nats put so much effort into criticising the Green Party. They’ve made a mess of the economy and have no solutions to fix it.
The Green Party has policies and a clear plan.
If we want more jobs in New Zealand, we need smart, green economics. And we won’t get that from this government. We will only get it from the Greens.
Russel Norman is co-leader of the Green Party