The Alliance Party says Aotearoa New Zealand should stop
treating economic growth as the main measure of national
progress, and instead judge government policy by whether it
improves people’s lives while protecting the
environment.
The proposal is at the core of the
Alliance’s new Environmental, Climate, and Sustainable
Economy Policy, which sets out a vision for a
“cooperative, ecological economy”.
Alliance
environment spokesperson and Christchurch Central candidate
Greg Byrnes says environmental and economic policy can no
longer be treated as separate issues.
“An economy
can be growing on paper while natural resources are
depleted, ecosystems are damaged, and communities carry the
wider costs,” says Mr Byrnes.
“We need to ask
whether people are better off, and are we leaving a healthy
environment for future generations?”
The Alliance
proposes moving towards a Genuine Progress Index, or GPI, as
a central measure of national progress, alongside
environmental auditing and true-cost accounting.
The
GPI would take account of environmental health, public
health and wellbeing, social equality, economic security,
public services, unpaid caring and community work, and the
interests of future generations.
Mr Byrnes says
government decisions need to be judged on their real social
and environmental consequences, not simply on whether they
increase Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The policy also
proposes:
a polluter-pays principle requiring those
responsible for environmental damage to meet the full cost
of prevention and repair;
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
the “right to repair”
and a move towards a zero-waste, circular economy;
100
percent public ownership of electricity generation,
transmission, distribution, and retail with a focus on
renewables;
replacing the Emissions Trading Scheme
with a carbon tax, with revenue directed towards renewable
energy, public transport, and emissions
reduction;
keeping water infrastructure and services
in public ownership, with stronger controls on water
pollution; and
prohibiting mining in national parks,
conservation areas, and other protected public
land.
Mr Byrnes says deteriorating freshwater quality
including rivers and groundwater shows why urgent
environmental action is necessary.
He says
environmental change must not come at the expense of workers
and communities.
“We know parts of our economy still
depend on finite and extractive resources, but multinational
corporations cannot be trusted to look after either the
environment or their workers when those industries reach the
end of the road.”
“As part of a Just Transition,
the government must retrain and redeploy workers, invest in
alternative industries and support communities affected by
change.”
The Alliance proposes bringing extractive
industries into public ownership as they are progressively
wound down, with revenue used for environmental restoration,
worker retraining, redeployment, and regional
investment.
Mr Byrnes says the basic principle of the
Alliance policy is straightforward.
“Our economy
must serve people and communities, and it has to operate
within the ecological limits of the planet.”
Mr
Byrnes is a former regional councillor on Environment
Canterbury (2022–2025), and was chair of the Regional
Biodiversity & Biosecurity Committee during
2023.
He is a professional environmentalist and spent
twelve years as general manager of Tūhaitara Coastal Park,
a 750 ha coastal wetland and dune area in North
Canterbury.
