May 11, 2022
Shaw and Nash not listening to Māori on ETS
The Māori Party’s climate change spokesperson says proposed changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme are an attack on Māori landowners.
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says the Ministry for Primary Industries’ plan to exclude pine and exotic forests from the ETS means many Māori landowners will no longer be able to generate revenue from marginal land.
She says she has been besieged by landowners who can’t get a hearing from Forestry Minister Stuart Nash and Climate Change Minister James Shaw.
“Basically it sucks up to the pākehā farmers, it completely pleases them who can afford to be putting their great whenua into natives, and effectively what it will do is end up having our Māori landowners out of pocket and with nothing to be able to go to to make our pretty marginal land productive,” she says.
Ms Ngarewa-Packer says the proposals are a huge breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.