When Labour became government, they promised to have a Zero Carbon Bill introduced to Parliament by October 2018. But despite a round of public consultation attracting 15,000 submissions, that hasn't happened yet. Why not? Because of NZ First:
NZ First is slowing progress on the Government's proposed climate change legislation, leading to a missed deadline for an announcement.
A source close to the situation told Stuff the party has been more intransigent on the issue than the National Party, which Climate Change Minister James Shaw is working with separately to make sure his Zero Carbon Act gets some level of bipartisan support.
An announcement on the policy was planned for before the end of 2018, but no announcement or draft bill has been forthcoming, despite the Ministry for the Environment planning to have the bill in Select Committee by February, according to its website.
The core problem is that NZ First's MPs are mostly climate deniers, or at the very least foot-draggers, who don't want to "disadvantage" agriculture by making it responsible for the mess it makes. So, the same old story of destroying the planet for profit and for the comfort of those unwilling to change. Meanwhile, in a taste of things to come, we have a killer heat-wave hitting the country, which will not be good for either agriculture (who tend to go bankrupt in droughts) or NZ First's mostly elderly supporters (who die much more easily in heat waves). And as the climate warms, we're going to see more of these, which means more droughts, and more dead old people. But I guess NZ First doesn't really care about that.
