Hon Nick Smith MP
National Party Climate Change Spokesman

6 March 2007

Anderton attempts to distract from carbon fiasco

Jim Anderton's hysterical response to National over carbon credits isn't surprising from someone seeking to distract attention from Labour's carbon credits fiasco, says National Party Climate Change spokesman Nick Smith.

"My response to media questioning that National would engage with the forestry sector and that some credits will be given to post-1990 forests is a mature reaction to a real problem," says Dr Smith.

"Mr Anderton, on the other hand, screams from the hilltops about National in the hope that the public is distracted from Labour's carbon credit fiasco that has led to deforestation at a record rate.

"National believes that forestry plantings are one of the main ways we can deal with our emissions. Disincentivising forest owners by slapping a deforestration tax on and inviting a chainsaw massacre is absurd.

"We are not prepared to sit by and see tens of thousands of hectares of forest chopped down because the Government has daft disincentives in place.

"The disaster of the deforestation tax is that many landowners are starting up their chainsaws early, making for reports of a massacre of New Zealand forests in areas like the central North Island and Canterbury.

"Forestry and foresters are part of the solution to climate change, not part of the problem, and they should be treated as such.

"Mr Anderton, on the other hand, is talking about Government policy proposals that are leading to thousands of additional tonnes of greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere with no offset. That's not good enough.

"This Government is part of the problem, not the solution."

ENDS

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