KEY POINTS:
National and the Greens say they could work together in some areas of environmental policy.
Green Party MP Metiria Turei spent the weekend at a conference with National's environmental advisory organisation, the Bluegreens, and said today her party was willing to co-operate with National or Labour to develop "fair and effective" policies.
It was the first time the Greens had been represented at a Bluegreens conference.
Earlier this year National's environment spokesman, Nick Smith, attended the Greens' annual conference.
"We've always been willing to work with parties who want to develop high quality, effective and fair environmental policies," Ms Turei said.
"That's open to all parties."
Dr Smith said the parties had common concerns in some areas.
"There are some important environmental issues where National and the Greens can work together," he said on Radio New Zealand.
"There's climate change - New Zealand's emissions are going through the roof, we both have a view they need to be constrained and brought down."
Dr Smith said deterioration of water quality was another issue, and the interaction between the tourism industry and conservation.
"Those are areas of common ground."
Ms Turei said although there were similarities, there would be significant differences on detail.
"At the conference I was looking for an assessment of what to do about the agricultural sector," she said.
"It's responsible for half of our carbon emissions and significant water and environmental degradation, but it's also a primary industry that provides a huge amount of income.
"That wasn't dealt with at the conference."
Ms Turei said she thought the Greens were closer to Labour than National on environment policies, and the Government was helping the Greens get their waste management bill through Parliament.
Dr Smith said yesterday he had briefed the conference on a plan to introduce new environmental reporting laws.
It would require "comprehensive" reporting on a five-yearly basis, overseen by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.
"Such reporting is crucial to the accountability of regional councils which have so many environmental responsibilities," he said.
"There are serious concerns about water quality in areas like Canterbury, Southland and Waikato but no standardised information that the public can access."
Dr Smith said the system would rate New Zealand's 76 major river systems and 42 significant lakes and report on whether their waters were deteriorating or improving.
- NZPA
