In a bid to address the pressing issue of climate change, politicians are being urged to set aside their differences and adopt a bipartisan approach.
Labour, National, ACT, the Green Party, Te Pāti Māori, and New Zealand First are at odds over climate mitigation and adaptation, making it difficult for New Zealand to have a clear, long-standing strategy.
Bronwyn Hayward is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Canterbury and the Director of Hei Puāwaitanga: Research Group for Future Generations, Sustainability and Civic Imagination.
She was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for contributions to sustainability, youth, and climate change in 2021.
Hayward said with the clock ticking and the need for decisive action becoming more apparent, political leaders need to prioritise the planet’s future over partisan interests.
She said business leaders don’t want flip-flopping on policy either, they want stability.
“This is too big to be squabbling between parties about either or solutions. We need to find some common ground, and we need to put it into practice.
“Right now, we've got a tit-for-tat election where we've got main political parties squabbling over EVs versus EV infrastructure, actually, we need both, and we need public transport.
“Ideally, it's finding the grace in political leadership to say yes, we've just started to bend the curve, and this is what we're going to do in addition, not we're going to scrap this, and we're going to replace it with that because all the research is telling us we need all the tools we've got to reduce emissions and to protect our population in a rapidly changing climate,” Hayward said.
She told 1News that in the past, politicians came together for superannuation, Kiwi Bank, and ACC, and she’s hopeful the next Parliament can do the same for the climate.
“The International Panel for Climate Change says if you've got limited money, protect those who are the poorest because they're going to be affected the most.
"If political parties agree to that as an agreement across the board, then you would start seeing parties being able to talk together, but right now, we don’t have that basic security for our population,” Hayward said.
Green co-leader James Shaw said he would “absolutely support a bipartisan approach to climate change”.
“I was the one who, in our first term of Government, worked very closely with the opposition to ensure the Zero Carbon Act passed universally through the House.
“We have to remember the National Party voted for the Zero Carbon Act in opposition. They’ve said they support our 2050 and 2030 targets, that’s a good thing. The thing that worries me right now is that most of the policies they’ve announced actually make it harder to hit those targets,” said Shaw.
National leader Christopher Luxon said he would also “love to sit down” with other parties in Parliament to tackle the “multi-generational challenge”.
“There'll be different governments of different political persuasions in the coming years, and it's important that we've got a common framework.
“It's hard work, don't get me wrong, it's really difficult to work out the balance of that. No other country in the world has actually been able to crack it easily 'cause it's just not easy, but I think we should get the parties together and find some common ground,” Luxon said.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins described Luxon’s pledge as “absolutely nonsense” as he’s wanted to “reverse every measure we've put in place in reducing our climate emissions”.
He said if National and ACT actually want to reduce emissions, “of course, we could work with them, but it's quite difficult to work with them to reduce emissions when they oppose every single thing that's achieving that”.
Hipkins said a bipartisan approach was successful when putting in place the Zero Carbon Act, but National walked away when Labour and the Greens tried to put a price on agricultural emissions.
ACT leader David Seymour said for Parliament to work on one plan would require Labour and the Greens to shift their climate policies.
“I predict that over time, people are going to see that subsidising Australian steel companies, for example, is an inefficient use of taxpayer money.
"What we should do is have an Emissions Trading Scheme with a cap in line with New Zealand's trading partners, which make up the vast bulk of global emissions,” Seymour said.
Te Pāti Māori and New Zealand First did not respond to a written request by 1News for comment.
More than 100,000 took part in the 1 News online poll Vote Compass, which asked how much New Zealand should do to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. It found 27% said the same as now, 31% said somewhat more and 24% wanted much more to done.
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