Published 18 September 2020

Labour, National, Greens on environmental policies

While Covid has had a huge impact on so many lives one thing that hasn’t changed is the threat to papatūānuku (mother earth) from climate change. We believe it is important to know what different political parties are going to do about protecting this earth.

Environment Hubs Aotearoa reached out to its members and their networks to ask what people wanted to know from the different political parties in terms of their response to different environmental issues.

The crowdsourced responses were then whittled down to eleven key questions which were passed on to each party for response.  At the time of publication only three of the parties had responded, despite follow up.  Below are responses from Labour, National and The Greens, without any filtering from us. We hope you find them useful in thinking about what’s important to you and who you might vote for in the upcoming elections. 

In summary, there are more similarities than you may imagine. All parties agree that waterways should be monitored better, that there should be more investment in public transport, that the agriculture sector is important and changes should be led by research, all support Predator Free 2050, the Zero Carbon Act and moving towards sustainable resources. The devil is in the detail, which is why it is important to read what each party is committing to and to look closely at the differences, which are not easily summarised. 

One final note from us here at Sustainability Trust, as proud supporters of the democratic right to vote, our EcoCentre is going to be a polling booth on Saturday the 3rd, 10th and 17th of October, so come and cast your vote with us.

Q1: What policies will your party implement to increase public and active transport and reduce carbon-emitting transport?

All parties agree that more investment in public transport is necessary if we want to reduce carbon-emitting transport. However:

• Labour wants to invest in more public transport, better cycleways and to see more EVs on the roads. Through the Low Emissions Contestable Fund, they will deliver more infrastructure for low emission transport. They also want all government light vehicles to be emission-free by 2025/26 (with the exception of specialised vehicles). 

• National wants to invest in more public transport such as rapid transport and rail networks in Wellington and Auckland. 

• The Green Party wants modern passenger rail, especially between cities and provincial towns. They want to make public transport more accessible and affordable. City planning will include safer streets for cycling and walking (especially around schools). They want to introduce fuel efficiency standards for cars to incentivise individuals to go electric. They also want to make supply chains carbon neutral.  They do not want to build unnecessary motorways.

Q2: How will your policies see urgent action around reducing emission from agriculture, and how will you support farmers to move towards regenerative agricultural practices?

All parties view the farming and agricultural sector as important and want to monitor and improve practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They all have a focus on more research in this sector. However, they have different ways they would achieve this:

• Labour would focus on more regenerative farming practices, with emphasis on restoring waterways and reversing the decline in biodiversity. They want to measure and price emissions by 2025. Through the Productive and Sustainable Land use package, they will work with farmers to help them transition into economically and environmentally viable farming practices. 

• National wants NZ to be the pioneers of a highly productive, low-carbon-footprint farming and agriculture economy. They will achieve this through R&D especially in regards to low-emission feeds and low-emission breeding.

• The Green Party wants a thriving agricultural sector that protects food security, produces high-value exports and responds to the challenges of climate change. Their emphasis will be on fair and science-based emissions monitoring, phasing out environmentally degrading agricultural products and pushing for more urban agriculture and sustainable farming through Pamu-Landcorp.   

Question 3: What are the next steps to reduce waste and support product stewardship, esp regarding food, plastic waste, batteries, textiles and packaging? 

National indicated that they would announce their policy closer to the election. Here is what the Labour and Greens had to say: 

• Labour wants more emphasis on a zero-waste circular economy and will use the waste hierarchy (reducing, reusing before recycling and safe disposal). They will expand the landfill levy, invest in more recycling infrastructure, and push for more regulated product stewardship. 

• The Green Party wants our economy to run on no-waste principles. They will achieve this by phasing out some single-use products, introducing standards and improving labelling on ‘compostable’ and ‘recyclable’ products and passing legislation for clear waste management for businesses and local authorities. 

Question 4: Will your party support measures to monitor water health, including oceans, rivers, streams and undergoing tributaries, and will this data be publically available?

National just responded with a yes to this question. Labour and Greens provided a few more words: 

• Labour agrees that we need better data to monitor and improve our waterways. They will do this by improving NZ’s environmental reporting system as outlined in the Commissioner for the Environment's 2019 Report, Focusing Aotearoa's NZ Environmental Reporting System.  

• The Green Party agrees that our waterways need to be protected. Better information collection and sharing of this information is key to understanding the overall health of our rivers, lakes and wetlands.

Question 5: What are the three 3 actions your party would support to move to Zero Carbon?

All parties support the Zero Carbon Act and agree that a move to renewable energy is needed. How they would achieve this is outlined below:

• Labour will support zero carbon by (1) working with farmers to reduce primary sector climate emissions at the farm level; (2) electrification of the economy and reducing the use of fossil fuel for transport and heat; (3)  move to 100% renewable energy.

• National will (1) support the Zero Carbon Act and will look closely at what the Climate Commission comes up with; (2) support the move to renewable energy through the emissions trading scheme.

• The Green Party will (1) implement plans for every sector to meet emission budgets; (2) make EVs more affordable and invest in better cycleways, buses and trains; (3) Bring the government’s 100% renewable energy by 2030 target forward; (4) make solar panels and batteries cheaper and equip all suitable estate homes with solar panels and batteries. 

Question 6: Do you have a plan to increase the range of items that can be recycled and upcycled domestically?

National indicated that they would announce their policy closer to the election. Here is what the Labour and Greens had to say: 

• Labour - Same as Q3 - Emphasis on a zero-waste economy.  

• The Green Party wants to amend the Consumer Guarantees Act to introduce a ‘Right to Repair’ requiring manufacturers to design products that can be fixed, not thrown away. They will increase the Waste Min Fund to reward innovation that supports a materials recovery and repurposing sector.

Question 7: What policies do you have to support individual businesses to move towards clean-energy options (ie solar, wind, hydrogen, EV Vehicles)? 

National indicated that they would announce their policy closer to the election. Here is what Labour and The Greens had to say: 

• Labour wants to transform NZ’s energy sector to be based on clean energy and wants to decarbonise transport and industrial heat.  They will do this by investing in renewable energy networks to power up cars (including hydrogen fuelling stations for heavy vehicles), trailing solar panels across Māori and social housing and generating power at a local level.

• The Green Party wants to ban fossil-fuel electricity generation, equip all suitable social housing with solar panels, provide a 50% discount for solar and batteries, introduce a Clean Energy Training plan, encourage energy retailers to change the way they price power usage, and change planning permissions so it's easier to build wind farms. 

Question 8: How will your party mitigate the effect of rising sea level and changing weather patterns in the NZ context?

National indicated that they would announce their policy closer to the election. Here is what the Labour and Greens had to say: 

• Labour & Greens - Through the National Climate Change Risk Assessment both Labour and Greens will implement changes to reduce the impact of climate change. The report was released Aug 2020.

Question 9: How will your party go about ensuring the ongoing protection of natural flora and fauna of Aotearoa given the effects of climate change?

All agree that Predator Free future is best for NZ biodiversity and survival of our native species: 

• Labour will continue to implement the Predator Free 2050 strategy and have introduced Ta Mana o Te Taiao - Aotearoa Biodiversity Strategy which sets specific goals for 2025, 2030 and 2050. They’ve also increased funding for DOC, are working with councils to restore biodiversity through a National Policy Statement for indigenous biodiversity, and will commit funding to prevent Kauri dieback. 

• National introduced Predator Free 2050 and will take a long-term pragmatic approach to conservation. 

• The Green Party has helped secure more money in conservation and believes in creating more jobs through the Jobs for Nature programme. They will invest in restoring wetlands, riverbanks, and increasing funding for research to enhance the Predator Free 2050 strategy. 

Question 10: Do you have policies that support a more resilient food system, that includes local food supply rather than export-oriented or import-heavy?

National indicated that they would announce their policy closer to the election. Here is what the Labour and Greens had to say: 

• Labour wants to protect NZ’s most fertile and versatile land through the proposed statement for highly productive land. 

• The Green Party wants to introduce country-of-origin labelling to all food products to promote people buying local. They want to promote urban agriculture and food forests and protect productive food growing land from urban sprawl, and they want government agencies to buy locally grown food and timber products.

Question 11: What commitments does your party have to only build efficient, sustainable new houses, to raise the standards for retrofitting houses to ensure the wellbeing of those living in them, and to bring current housing up to this level. 

National indicated that they would announce their policy closer to the election. Here is what the Labour and Greens had to say: 

• Labour has introduced one of the largest housing reforms in 20 years and more homes are being built to modern standards that include double glazing, insulation, and affordable heating. They have also committed funding to retrofit programmes for statehouses. 

• The Green Party helped introduce Healthy Homes Standards for rental properties and want to make sure all new Kainga Ora properties are energy efficient. They want to overhaul the building code so that all homes and buildings are built to high standards of warmth, drynesses, energy and water efficiency and require them to use greywater recycling systems.