Dear prospective voter, 12/09/05

Grand children will have to cope
with massive change in lifestyle

In the interests of my grandson who is four and a half, I have printed excerpts from Jeanette Fitzsimons’ speech (1 September 2005). The other parties do seem to be blind to the massive change in lifestyle with which my grand children (and maybe even my children) are going to have to cope.

The Greens believe the two most important challenges facing the New Zealand economy - in fact economies around the world - are climate change and the end of cheap oil. Climate change, if not slowed and stopped, will soon do irreparable damage to our economy and our way of life. If we do nothing, droughts will increase on the east coast, tropical pests and diseases will establish here, sea levels will rise and make much of our cities and towns uninhabitable and the certainty and stability that all economic activity depends upon will be undermined.

We ... know that the cheap oil, on which our civilisation was built, is rapidly running out. Oil has now hit US$70 a barrel, more than four times what it cost five years ago. The Greens have real solutions, in the areas of energy and transport, that will allow us to adapt.
 
Ø      We want much greater investment in buses, ferries and trains. We're ... concerned that businesses will soon find it unaffordable to move goods by truck, so we want to re-build New Zealand's capacity to move freight on rail and coastal shipping.
Ø      We want the cars brought in to the country from now on to go twice as far on a tank full so will encourage this with rebates on annual registration.
Ø      We want to develop alternatives to fossil fuels, like biofuels, so that when cheap oil starts becoming a pipe-dream, we have already made other energy sources a reality.

Our energy policies will ... protect us from the worst effects of climate change and the end of cheap oil: We want to put half a million solar water heating panels on Kiwi homes, reject coal, and promote wind. We need to do more with the energy we've got, so we'll also be encouraging energy efficiency initiatives at every opportunity. Getting rid of fixed line charges on electricity and helping Kiwis to insulate their homes will mean that people will be rewarded for using less power while remaining warm in the process. Our aim is to cut Kiwis' power bills by helping you keep warm with less.

  Our policies are about choice: about making it easier for Kiwis and businesses to do things smarter, cleaner, and more efficiently.

Government has a role in helping businesses develop new, cleaner technologies to make the transition from the age of cheap oil to the age of renewable resources and efficiency. Only dinosaur businesses and dinosaur politicians could oppose this.

Please, either get the party for which you do vote to recognise the future needs of our country, OR give your party vote to the Green Party. (You don’t have to agree with all their policies — I don’t, but I am sure they have the big picture right and the other niggling little bits will be swept away by the looming future).

Thank you for reading this,

-- John Henderson; 2, Hardley Ave. Email: vandj@xtra.co.nz

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