Ian McLean Spokesperson for the Green Party

Kia kaha to the fisheries companies who are separating themselves from charter vessels crewed by slave labour, and to the tangata whenua who rightly attribute blame for the Rena to a failing economic system and not the poorly paid people who work in it.

Buried beneath the local issues is the next Rio Summit on the Environment. The original summit 20 years ago was a watershed event. Have we delivered on its promises?

WWF NZ has built the summary for us (www.wwf.org.nz) and it is sad reading. Professor David Hamilton of Waikato University said:

'Almost every environmental performance indicator points to deterioration in the NZ environment, particularly in biodiversity across freshwater, marine and terrestrial systems.”

New Zealand is losing marine and terrestrial biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions are increasing, most fisheries are not sustainable, and our waterways remain polluted.

The environment is central to our economy. Let's use Rio to make it so.