KEY POINTS:
A missing chapter of a major environmental report was dumped because it was not supported by the facts, Environment Minister Trevor Mallard says.
Greens co-leader Russel Norman yesterday released a previously unpublished chapter from the State of the Environment report which he said had been removed due to the influence of powerful lobby groups and government departments.
The 13th chapter, which was originally intended to be published as part of the report, but was pulled some time towards the end of last year, pointed to industrial dairying as the largest cause of environmental decline.
But Mr Mallard today said the chapter had been scrapped because it made a series of conclusions that were not strictly supported by the facts.
It also made policy recommendations, which was not the intended role of the "technical" report.
The chapter had been widely circulated last year and he was happy for it to be published on the Environment Ministry's website so people could form their own opinion.
Mr Mallard said he himself had criticised the farming lobby when the report was released a fortnight ago.
"The farming lobby were widely criticised by me as part of the release. It was in my speech at the release, it was in the comments that I made afterwards. There was a lot of media about it," Mr Mallard said today on Radio New Zealand.
"So the idea that it was swept under the carpet when I was very very clear that farming has got to change is just not right."
Mr Mallard said the changes to the report were appropriate and part of a normal professional peer review process.
Dr Norman and National's environment spokesman Nick Smith yesterday called for the report to be taken over by the independent Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.
But Mr Mallard said that would be impractical and expensive. All the information in the report was held by the ministry and several staff would have to be added to the commissioners office at a high expense.
Dr Norman earlier singled out the road and farming lobby groups and said they both had reasons to not want to have a "strident chapter" in the report.
"We know there are powerful lobby groups who have had an enormous influence on the Government," he said.
"They may have found it too embarrassing because it makes recommendations to do things that they're not currently doing."
But Federated Farmers president Charlie Pedersen today said the chapter should be published so a proper debate could be had over the balance between food production and economic growth and their effect on the environment.
The missing chapter points to industrial dairying as the largest cause of environmental decline in the country.
"The chapter says that land-use intensification, particularly pastoral land-use intensification, is 'arguably the largest pressure today on New Zealand's land, freshwaters, coastal oceans and atmosphere'," said Dr Norman.
"Remarkably, there were four chapters on pressures on the environment in the published report, but land-use intensification is not one of them ...
"The published report was toned down to avoid pointing to the real causes."
Dr Norman said the most likely reason the chapter was pulled was because all those with vested interests, including lobby groups and other government departments involved in producing the report, would not like the warnings it contained.
"It wasn't just the Ministry for the Environment, there were other departments involved who would have a vested interest in not telling the whole story - particularly around this incredibly important industry called dairy."
Dr Norman said the chapter held warnings of the threat to the economy because of the country's environmental performance.
He said it was extraordinary that despite the report referring to the pressures on the environment, there was no chapter on land-use intensification. The omission of the chapter highlighted the need for any similar reports to be "at arm's length of the government of the day".
"We think it is essential in order to protect the integrity of future State of the Environment reports they need to come under the direction of an independent person."
The Ministry of the Environment defended the removal of the chapter from the report.
Todd Krieble, general manager for reporting and communications, said the edited material contained policy recommendations, but the report was supposed to be a technical report which would be used to develop policy later on.
"The cardinal sin of technical reporting is to over-interpret the data," he said on Radio New Zealand.
"What we've done is made sure that the passages that got beyond what the facts would support were removed.
"It's a technical report, and we have a strong discipline of making sure that we do stick to the facts."
National environment spokesman Nick Smith said the suppression of the chapter showed such work needed to be prepared by the independent Parliamentary Commissioner of the Environment.
"It is of serious concern that a critical chapter in this report - on the impacts of agriculture - was deleted. These issues are of real concern and need addressing, and Labour is mistaken if it believes they can be swept under the carpet," Dr Smith said.
"This doctored report highlights the concerns National has about the neutrality of the Environment Ministry."
UNFINISHED REPORT
WHAT: The State of the Environment report is missing a chapter that highlighted industrial dairying as the largest cause of environmental decline.
WHO: The Green Party said lobby groups and other government departments put pressure on the Ministry for the Environment to withhold the chapter.
WHY: The Government says the chapter was dumped because it was not supported by facts.
The Green Party said groups with vested interests did not like the warnings contained in the chapter or the recommendations for action.
- NZPA
