James Shaw failed dismally over policy purge and ‘should stand down’, say Te Pāti Māori

Te Pāti Māori is “extremely concerned” with the government’s culling of certain environmental policies, saying the climate change minister had failed “dismally and should stand down”.

Climate Change Minister and Green co-leader James Shaw himself said he was disappointed “with some of the choices that were made in terms of the so-called policy bonfire”.

“Anytime that you decide to ditch a policy that has an impact on reducing pollution, (it) means that you’ve got to make it up somewhere else.”

The clash between potential government-partners comes after the latest 1News Kantar Public Poll found Labour and the Greens would need the help of Te Pāti Māori to form a government, if the results were reflected at the upcoming election.

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Prime Minister Chris Hipkins pushed back on the impact of the changes, saying the policies would have only made “a very small contribution to our overall emissions reductions targets”, while policies that target both cost of living issues and climate change are likely to be released at the Budget in May.

Hipkins on Monday announced his second ‘re-prioritisation’ which included scrapping or stopping a range of environmental policies, to make sure what the government was rolling out “is delivering the best bang for buck and is actually deliverable”.

That included stopping the clean car upgrade scheme, focusing public transport improvement to five main centres rather than nationwide, scrapping the policy to lease clean cars to low income families and deferring work on the proposed container return scheme.

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer​ said she was “extremely, extremely concerned” with the changes.

“You’ve got to ask yourself, how much more are they going to slam that brake on and reverse and completely get to a stage where they seem to be trying to appeal to … climate change deniers, than they are to the climate crisis and climate justice?”

Ngarewa-Packer said it was why the Labour-led government had a climate change minister from another party.

“We expected him to be much more progressive. He’s failed. He’s failed dismally, and should stand down.”

Asked why he wouldn’t walk away from the agreement with the Green Party and Labour in light of the changes, Shaw said, “it might send a strong message, but it doesn’t actually achieve anything”.

“You don’t get to influence anything by walking away. We need to double down … We need more Green MPs in Parliament that we need more Green ministers and that we need to be sitting around the Cabinet table.”

Asked what tangible environmental changes New Zealanders could expect from government this year, Shaw said, “probably the single most significant thing is the change to the resource management act, which does introduce environmental bottom lines”.

Environment Minister David Parker in 2022 also set out the plan to standardise recycling across the country, with more details to be released by the government soon.

The government also may have thrown the Greens a small bone, making a tweak on Tuesday to upcoming tax changes so employer-provided bikes, E-bikes and other low-powered vehicles for employees to travel between work and home would be exempt from being hit with a fringe benefit tax.

Asked what environmental policies National would bring in if it were in government, deputy Nicola Willis said they wanted to “electrify New Zealand … to vastly increase the amount of renewable energy that is used in the economy”.

“Forget about 100% renewable. We want 200% renewable so that we can have an electrified transport fleet, electrified industrial heat,” she said.

The 1News poll also found 54% of respondents wanted the government to act with more urgency over climate change, while 27% said it should continue as planned.

The same poll also asked the priority issue that would influence who they would vote for at the upcoming election, with top issues being cost of living at 48%, climate change at 12% and healthcare at 11%.