Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

State of the Environment report stopped

Updated at 8:06 am on 29 October 2012

The Government is stopping the five-yearly State of the Environment report.

Put together by the Ministry of the Environment, the report is the largest stock-take of trends relating to land, water, air, plants and animals.

The next report was expected in December, but the Government has decided instead to look at the basic data for each area.

Environment Minister Amy Adams said the ministry is continually tracing environmental performance using 22 core indicators and the change is to ensure new information is released as it comes to hand.

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright said that is not good enough, because the data is not compiled, analysed, or compared.

Dr Wright also said she was unaware the report was being scrapped.

Green MP Eugenie Sage said the Government is just trying to keep New Zealanders in the dark about environmental problems.

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