Lop deforestation tax, says National

new-zealand-national-party

Fri Feb 23 2007 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Lop deforestation tax, says National

Friday, 23 February 2007, 1:18 pm
Press Release: New Zealand National Party

Hon Nick Smith MP
National Party Climate Change Spokesman

23 February 2007

The Government's desperate attempt today to bail out of its public relations disaster over deforestation will not succeed until it categorically rules out its proposed deforestation tax, says National's Climate Change spokesman, Nick Smith.

"Today's announcement is just another chapter in the Government's policy debacle over climate change.

"They proposed the option of a deforestation tax in December, but it is causing such an uproar amongst landowners that they are distancing themselves from the proposal before the consultation process is over.

"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.

"The Prime Minister's promise of New Zealand being carbon neutral is a sick joke when she is presiding over the first deforestation in half a century.

"The tax looks set to join the Government's earlier failed proposals of a fart tax and carbon tax.

"National calls on the Government to scrap the deforestation tax and cap.

"The answer is not regulation and taxes, but changing the investment climate for forestry by enabling them a return on carbon credits.

"That is why National wants a tradeable emissions permit system established as soon as possible."

ENDS

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