Politics blog week 09/06

Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has accused the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon of lying to Parliament through assertions his government was not weakening its approach to climate change. 

“I called it a demonstrable lie when the Prime Minister told Parliament in December 2023 that he wasn’t weakening actions on climate - while he was actively weakening actions on climate. It was and remains a demonstrable lie," she said. 

She made the comments in light of news hundreds of environmental lawyers were making a legal challenging the government's emissions reduction plan, in what is the first time the country's emissions reduction plan has faced litigation. 

“Christopher Luxon has spent the better part of two years telling the country everything is fine while he dismantles effective climate policy, gives handouts to the fossil fuel sector and platforms lobbyist’s pseudoscience on agricultural emissions. This would be a meme - a joke - if it wasn’t so serious," Swarbrick said. 

She added the government's plan now "relies on unproven, economically unfeasible technologies and plastering our country in pine trees".

"The Greens have shown we can reduce climate-changing emissions five times faster than the Government’s ‘plan,’ while reducing the cost of living and improving our quality of life," she added.