Gareth Hughes > Quotes

“In the 1990 election campaign both Labour and National parties adopted ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The country at that point was near carbon-neutral, with sources of emissions balanced by forestry which s3equestered the carbon. However, in the coming decade emissions would skyrocket as New Zealanders drove more; trucks replaced rail and shipping for freight; coal and gas were increasingly burnt for electricity; vast swathes of the country’s farms and wetlands were converted to dairy farming; and coal was used to convert that milk to powder for export. The National government spent the 1990s anguishing over what tool to use to reduce emissions and ended up doing nothing. Labour came in in 1999, signed up to the Kyoto Protocol and announced a carbon tax, but set it so far in the future that coalition politics eventually killed it. Meanwhile, every year, NZ’s net emissions increased from cars, cows and coal. Labour took climate pollution out of the RMA, relying on voluntary commitments and technological wishes… By 2008 NZ’s emissions were 25% higher than they had been in 1990.”
― Gareth Hughes, A Gentle Radical: The Life of Jeanette Fitzsimons

“I have sat here for 13 years weeping at the tragedy of so many people wasting the precious gift of life by chasing the mirage of a bigger GDP.”
― Gareth Hughes, A Gentle Radical: The Life of Jeanette Fitzsimons

“Her tactic when lecturing for preventing student despair… was to give them what she called “solution multipliers” – answers to a problem that addressed more than one issue, rather than solving one problem and thereby creating another.”
― Gareth Hughes

“I am not suggesting that the new politics is just about sweetness and light and being nice to people. It is as important as ever to have a proper analysis of power and be prepared to confront it. But perhaps the image is not the two boxers facing up to each othe with fists and bloody noses, but he aikido skill of turning the force against itself, or of removing just the right brick from the wall so that it crumbles. This requires no less strength, courage or determination.”
― Gareth Hughes, A Gentle Radical: The Life of Jeanette Fitzsimons

“She knew that sometimes a well-placed question could effect a significant change in direction. She also knew that Palmer was not a dyed-in-the-wool right-winger; he was not opposed to energy efficiency per se, just disagreed about the appropriate constitutional delivery. She leaned forward and asked him, ‘How would you do it, Sir Geoffrey?’ he replied at length, expounding on all the ways it could be done. Dennis Marshall, the select committee chair, looked at Jeanette and back at Sir Geoffrey and said, ‘Professor Palmer, would you like to assist the committee with a redraft?’ Jeanette loved to tell this story and would joyfully recount watching the expression on the face of the ministry of commerce official at the back of the room go from a grin to a horrified grimace as Palmer said yes. With Palmer’s help, an ambitious first attempt at writing law grew to become a fine piece of legislation. (the EECA)”
― Gareth Hughes, A Gentle Radical: The Life of Jeanette Fitzsimons