Russel Norman contributes to a series on tax, GST and the economy by highlighting the limitations of "GDP growth" and suggesting the rationale for a Conservation Fund to compensate for mining activity in national parks has an Orewellian ring to it.
The Greens have a vision for a smart green economy that looks after the prosperity of people and the natural environment.
A smart green economy starts with what's important - looking after our planet and making sure people's human needs are met - and using technology where it assists us to do this.
In contrast, growing GDP by digging holes in the conservation estate is dumb economics.
John Key's proposed reforms for our tax system, cutting the top income tax rate while increasing GST, may encourage GDP to grow in the short term but they will do little to promote long-term prosperity and equality.
The fairest way to address damaging housing speculation is through a comprehensive capital gains tax excluding the family home, just like nearly every other OECD country already has.
A capital gains tax is a broad, highly progressive tax that would help to reduce inequality.
It would also raise an additional $4.5 billion giving the Government considerable scope to pay off debt and invest in good things like health and education.
On the other hand, raising GST, as the Government proposes, entrenches inequality and will not strengthen the resilience of the tax system like a capital gains tax would.
Those who are poorest are hit hardest.
How hard? The detail is still to come and will no doubt reflect public reaction in the run-up to the Budget.
If John Key had a vision for New Zealand he'd be proposing tax reform that moves our economy in a green direction.
We need ecological tax reform like a resource rental on use of freshwater by irrigators so that we encourage the efficient use of water.
We need to internalise the environmental costs that are currently externalised on to the whole community.
Is GDP growth the same thing as prosperity? Last weekend, up at Waitangi, kids spent the day jumping into the water off the bridge leading to the treaty grounds.
They were having a wild time.
They were enjoying a real and tangible form of prosperity and freedom . . . and contributing absolutely nothing to GDP.
Kids used to swim in our rivers and streams all over Aotearoa New Zealand, and in some places they still do.
But in lots of places the rivers have been degraded by irrigation and pollution.
Those kids have to go to the local swimming pool instead of the local swimming hole.
Swimming pools cost money to build and maintain and they definitely contribute to GDP - the kids with polluted rivers and creeks are definitely making a contribution to Labour and National's dream of GDP growth.
But those kids swimming off the beach at Waitangi were contributing absolutely nothing to GDP; they were simply enjoying the prosperity given freely by nature.
Let's hang on to the things that bring us all prosperity rather than sacrifice them to the great god of GDP growth.
We all stand to lose the things we treasure while a few get rich.
John Key has confirmed the worst fears of thousands of New Zealanders - that his Government is gearing up to dig up our national parks and marine reserves.
His speech is about trying to increase GDP growth - not prosperity - and the only way he can pay for it is by digging up our conservation estate.
Mining national parks, where the public pay the cost by losing our valued conservation land while corporations gain private profit for their overseas shareholders, is a classic case of externalising the true costs.
Our conservation land contains some of New Zealand's most treasured places.
We treasure it because of its water, forests, plants, birds and animals, not because of what's under the ground.
John Key's Government has consistently cut conservation funding and made it harder and harder to protect these places.
Mr Key had the gall to announce that, by directing mining royalties into a Conservation Fund, that if there is an increase in mining activity, New Zealand's natural environment will also be improved.
That's a line that only George Orwell could have written.
In order to save the environment we have to destroy it! It's not true.
New Zealanders will see right through it.
Mining will leave us with big holes in the ground and a clean-up bill.
And then what will we do? We did whales, seals, kauri, kauri gum, mining . . . what happens when all the extractive industries run out? Then we will be forced to be sustainable.
Why not do that now while we still have our national parks?Why don't we prepare for the future by catching the great wave of green economic change that is heading our way? All over the world people are making money by producing the technology that will enable us to live sustainably on the planet.
Let us export the intellectual property for geothermal electricity generation rather than the metals trapped under Mt Aspiring National Park.
Russel Norman is co-leader of the Green Party.
