SYDNEY, March 22, 2019 – The Berejiklian government has attempted to silence voices calling for a cleaner environment and an appropriate response to global warming, threatening to take election results in marginal seats to court should their candidates fail.Their allegation is that policy scorecards distributed by Greenpeace Australia Pacific and the Nature Conservation Council of NSW that assess the major parties on their environmental policies are not accurate.
“Gladys Berejiklian’s Coalition government has ignored the environment for eight years. They have no plan to encourage construction of large-scale renewable energy in New South Wales. Greenpeace has been transparent in our policy requests, and have offered them policy expertise if that’s the barrier. But it actually seems like the barrier is that they just don’t give a damn”, said Greenpeace Australia Pacific Campaigner, Holly Dawson.
“Gladys Berejiklian personally shelved climate policies after she became Premier [1], which a government body, the NSW Climate Change Council, had developed. Meanwhile, Treasurer Dominic Perrottet proudly stands by his remarks that spending money on fighting climate change is ‘a gratuitous waste.’ Respectfully, when people are suffering from droughts, bushfires and water shortages, that’s an appalling thing to say.” [2].
“If the Liberals want to start a conversation on their shameful environmental record, bring it on. We welcome that. So it is telling that after eight years of inaction, rather than come to an election with a credible climate and environment platform, they seek to silence charities who are just trying to cast light on what’s happening.”
The scorecards produced for the NSW election were developed through an independent assessment survey by the Nature Conservation Council of NSW. They are registered and approved by the NSW Electoral Commission to be handed out on election day in Lismore, Ballina, Tweed and Coogee.
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Scorecards images:
For interviews contact:
Martin Zavan
Greenpeace Australia Pacific Communications Campaigner
0424 295 422 / [email protected]
