‘Not just lizards and bush’

Press, 12 March 1985, Page 6

‘Not just lizards and bush’

The vice-president of the Federation of Labour, Ms Sonja Davies, has made a plea for the social environment to be included within the ambit of the new Minister for the Environment. It was necessary to link environmental and economic planning to ensure that full employment was promoted that was also environmentally sound,

Ms Davies said at the Environment Forum in Parliament. The term “environment” needed a wide definition so attention could be paid to the immediate physical and social environment of working class families, Maoris, women, and others, she said. Health and safety at work were part of the environment, and so was an assess-

ment of the impact of new technology. /In a number of instances in recent years, groups of workers and groups of environmentalists had found themselves at odds on specific issues — including milling native timber, and setting up a second aluminium smelter. “Environmental considerations don’t cut much ice when you are about to lose your job at the local sawmill,” Ms Davies said, “Especially if there is no sign of the promised solar waterheating factory or the local organic farm which is meant to take you on.” While the preservation of

wetlands and endangered species was of concern, of more pressing environmental concern to many was the immediate environment in which they lived. Housing and transport, rather than lizards and bush, were the kind of bread-butter environmental issues that dominated the lives of many New Zealanders, she said. Working environment, the environment of women, the environment of many Maoris, ought to be addressed with the same level of enthusiasm and resources as other apparently more spectacular environmental issues.