Fracking Gareth Hughes

Green MP Gareth Hughes has just published a blog post congratulating Labour for restating their pre-election policy of a demand for an immediate inquiry into the mineral extraction technique known as fracking.There has been fracking in New Zealand since 1993, and given current international concerns, there are calls to ban or limit its use.

The main point of Gareth’s blog post is to call on Labour to change its position to push for an outright ban on fracking…

Considering Labour’s concerns, they should commit to backing the call for an immediate moratorium, the only way we can safeguard our rights to clean water and air and a safe environment.

Which is a logically reasonable position, but not one I’m going to get into today.

My issue with Gareth’s post is that he is essentially calling on Labour to adopt a Green Party policy. The problem for Labour is if we do this, we will inevitably be slammed by the Greens for ‘stealing’ their policy, as has happened all too often recently.

David Shearer has been quite explicate in his desire to see Labour focus on building a greener, more sustainable economy. His appointment of his number two, Grant Robertson, to the environment portfolio shows that Labour are taking the environment just as seriously as the Greens. This is undoubtably going to cause further tensions in the future.

I’m look forward to the day when New Zealand politics can move past petty partisan bickering so that we can really start addressing some of the massive issues that our country faces.