Labour is still telling two stories about logging native forests on the West Coast, Green Party Co-Leader Rod Donald said today.

"Labour's Epsom candidate, David Jacobs, has been telling Aucklanders that under Labour logging will stop, but on the West Coast local Labour MP Damien O'Connor is telling everyone that Labour will back logging through to 2007," Mr Donald said.

"Jacobs describes the same extra 24,000 rimu trees which O'Connor wants to see chopped down as 'our Crown jewels'. He goes on to say that with Labour's new policy 'we will be able to promote our clean, green identity with pride rather than duplicity'.

"But by telling Coasters one thing and Aucklanders something completely different, Labour is engaging in the very duplicity Jacobs claims has ended," Mr Donald said.

"It is now clear that when Labour announced its indigenous forest policy, they knew long-term contracts had been signed which would mean our last remaining lowland podocarp forests would continue to be logged, if they stuck to their position that existing logging contracts would be honoured. The Green Party is now calling on Labour to end the logging immediately after the election.

"If Labour refuses to stop the logging before 2007, they will lose the confidence of the green movement who now feel let down after applauding Labour's forest policy when it was first announced."

ENDS

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