Climate Change

New Zealand First supports the necessity for a transition to a zero carbon future where people and planet and business can all thrive. We recognise that climate change is interconnected with many other environmental and social sustainability issues.

Responding to Climate change means responding together, across sectors, including transport, industrial heat, electricity, agriculture, forestry, waste, and water. We will work to prioritise actions across these areas.

We want to encourage a platform in which businesses feel safe and encouraged to measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions, assist with setting public emissions reduction, and working within their own sectors to reduce their emissions.

This includes enabling members to measure, report on, and reduce their emissions, particularly on New Zealand’s key transition opportunities. We also support our members to build the resilience to adapt to a changing climate.

New Zealand First recognises that a healthy planet, means restoring nature, including biodiversity, water ecosystems, forests and soil. As Business NZ has said, “This is particularly critical in New Zealand, as so much of our economic success relies on nature, including agriculture.”

Successfully addressing these issues means NZ has a competitive advantage with its exports into the rest of the world. Customers place a high value on sustainability, so as much as this is the right thing to do for our planet, it also makes economic sense. 

As New Zealand introduces national carbon budgets, New Zealand First will work with Business to ensure it is proactively part of shaping a shared plan to transition New Zealand to a zero carbon economy. 

Environment

As New Zealanders, we should be proud of our natural environment and treat it with the respect it deserves. New Zealand First believes the government must strike a fair balance between environmental stewardship and utilizing our natural resources. It is when this is done properly that good environmental policy becomes sound economic policy, helping New Zealanders get the most out of our environment while ensuring its longevity.

Policy:

• Support an evidence based approach to complex environmental issues where it is often challenging to achieve the correct balance
• Advocate that government and industry work together to achieve better environmental outcomes 
• Support the 1 billion trees strategy while ensuring that native species play an important part in the planting strategy
• Address pollution of streams, rivers, and beaches
• Halt creation of any new landfills and urgently advance work on the development of rubbish disposal alternatives through conducting a nationwide recycling and recovery strategy
• Develop a nationwide Waste-to-Energy strategy.
• Develop an easy to use, uncomplicated recycling labelling regime for food and drink packaging. 
• Seek higher Crown levies on minerals extracted and return 25 percent of royalties to the regions of source
• Work towards ensuring that the right to take and use water is available only to New Zealand people (citizens and permanent residents) and New Zealand owned companies
• Ensure developers are responsible to the community when avoiding, remedying or mitigating adverse environmental effects

Conservation

Our country has a unique ecosystem of international significance meaning it must be protected from potential threats, and be preserved for future generations. New Zealand First advocates for conservation policies that are proactive, create employment, and engage with local communities.

Policy:

• Investigate the feasibility of a ‘New Zealand Native Tree Seed Bank’ and the greater use of ‘Native Tree Sanctuaries’ 
• Fund the Kauri dieback response to include more monitoring, research, compliance staff, and disease control
• Support threatened species recovery programmes while also protecting and restoring their natural habitat
• Continue on our 2017 commitment to support scientific research into 1080 alternatives through the likes of National Science Challenges
• Expand the poison free pest trapping zones and ensure pest control on Crown land is effectively implemented
• Support coordinated development of the possum fur industry and continue to support pest eradication and the trapping industry
• Support new initiatives for community groups, iwi, and conservation groups to participate in conservation projects
• Protect our waterways through supporting riparian planting, creating wetlands, and fencing off waterways to improve river quality
• Enhance and protect the rights of all New Zealanders to access their cultural heritage sites through clarifying and amending legislation associated with protecting these heritage sites, buildings and objects
• Require effective coordination between relevant government agencies to ensure appropriate deterrents exist to the poaching and trafficking of threatened species
• Rationalise pastoral leases, where grazing of value exists, to promote ecologically sustainable land use with strong attention to special natural areas
• Provide financial support and aid the development of water harvesting schemes such as storage dams where appropriate 
• Give the West Coast access to the Department of Conservation held stewardship land for sustainable and environmentally approved mining
• Ensure the Department of Conservation survey all stewardship land within 10 years and remove those parts of it from the Conservation Estate that should not be so designated.