Environmental Spending

Per head of population, and adjusted for inflation, the amount of money made available by the government (by direct spending or tax concessions) for research into environmental resource and energy problems and solutions, has been decreasing annually for over a decade now. This will appear ridiculous to the many people who believe not only that forward planning should be going on, but also that research into alternatives and the necessary technological development should be occurring.

New Zealand has some of the most enlightened town planning laws in the world, yet they have not been enforced simply because they would require some small but effective changes in social attitude and structure.

It is agreed that today we could resolve our balance of payment problems, cut loose from our overseas masters by rationing commodities we cannot afford such as petrol. This would require an up-grading of public transport (which recent governments have actually been dismantling!) and a change in attitude by the "average bloke" or "average kiwi".

As the Executive still have to go through the unfortunate process of actually canvassing the people to be re-elected to remain the Executive, they seldom indulge in anything that will get this rather dubious Mr Average disturbed. In addition, such activities may upset the all important overseas companies (here the oil companies who send their profits overseas).