The Transition Timaru public candidates meeting involved an opening address and questions from the floor followed by a break-out session and a final summary. Held at the Caroline Bay Hall, the meeting was well attended with around 80 people and candidates from both the Rangitata and Waitaki electorates.
For the opening address we were asked to cover our party's position on resource depletion, climate change, the ecological system's decline, the global financial system, the end of economic growth, and well being and flourishing; with a special emphasis on making our community resilient. Here's my opening address:
Mr Chair, fellow candidates, ladies and gentlemen.
Suppose this is our future, a future of economic turmoil and chaotic climate conditions. And we have to face this future, with dwindling energy resources and an ever increasing human population. This is a future that the majority of today's climate scientists are saying is just around the corner.
Climate change theory isn't new. A Swedish scientist first claimed that fossil fuel combustion may eventually result in enhanced global warming back in 1896. The science didn't gain traction until the 1950's and 60's and has built up considerable steam throughout the 80's, 90, and 000's.
To date, the scary climate change predictions of decades past, haven't borne true. Scepticism still remains around the quality of the underlying data, the assumptions made and even the climate models used.
But what cannot be doubted is that we've started to see the warmest global temperatures on record. United Future believes that there are real and present risks associated with climate change, and that there is a pressing need for a timely response.
That response needs to be in two parts. Firstly we need to reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses being released into the atmosphere. United Future's policy is to continue supporting the establishment of the Emissions Trading Scheme as opposed to introducing a carbon tax.
Secondly, even if we manage to drastically cut emissions, we still need to ensure that we can prosper in the worst case scenario. If we really are in for that, then it is our agriculture industry that will suffer most. In the words of Julian Blanchard, “our region relies almost solely on the agriculture industry”.
I'd argue that when we talk about being resilient as a community, we should first and foremost talk about having resilience in our agriculture. Droughts, floods, snow, hail and even wind can all have dramatic effects on our farming communities.
Access to water and access to free-trade markets will be fundamental in ensuring our region is resilient in the face of global climate change, and United Future has policies to ensure these outcomes can be met.
In saying that, United Future is the party that represents this country's recreational interests. We want practical access to public land, and for our waterways to be fenced with native planting. We also want to see recreational flows in our waterways and non-economic farmland returned to native forest.
To achieve this, United Future believes that we need to be prepared to work alongside land owners and treat them fairly.
United Future believes in fairness. You won't see us putting the minimum wage up to $15 per hour, you won't see us placing pumping charges on irrigators, you won't see us upping employer kiwi-saver contributions to 7%, and you won't see us introducing a capital gains tax. The last thing we want is to find employers and our agricultural industry struggling, with both government policy and climate change at the same time. It's a double-whammy that our region doesn't need.
Resource depletion, and in particular fossil fuels, could also play a major role in the coming decades. This could have a huge effect on transportation, electricity generation and the agricultural industry.
United Future's key goals in this area are to maintain the security of supply and ensure competitive pricing. We also want to see a fully developed National Energy Strategy, moving us towards more sustainable forms of energy use.
To help safeguard us in the shorter-term, United Future believes that we should encourage rapid exploration and development of New Zealand's potential oil and gas reserves. However, this exploration must be exercised within the current environmental standards.
As we move away from unsustainable forms of energy, it doesn't follow that we must move away from economic growth. Unless households stop consuming, business stop investing, government stops spending and international trade breaks down – we'll always have the ability for growth. If we manage to achieve post-oil growth, then it will come about through technical innovation, environmental regulation, efficiency gains, and behavioural change.
I look forward to personally interacting with you during the discussion sessions. Thank you for your time.
For further information on United Future and our policies, go to the United Future web site:
www.unitedfuture.org.nz