Greens announce 10c excise levy plan for bottled water at election campaign launch.
Party co-leader James Shaw on Sunday announced the planned excise levy at the Greens’ election campaign launch in Nelson where he said additional consents for bottling water would be stopped "until we can sort out all of the challenges that we face in protecting this most precious of all taonga".
The 10c levy on sales or exports of bottled still and sparkling water would be immediate but interim while a proposed working party helped develop a system to charge all commercial water users "a fair amount".
"Putting a price on it [water] values it and it also encourages organisations to be more efficient with that resource," Shaw said.
READ MORE: Another twist on the Greens’ dilemma as Peters, Turei spark up The 10c levy was expected to bring in just $2.73m from the 27m litres of bottled water exported a year.
Co-leader Metiria Turei told the crowd that if the Greens were not in government after the September election, the country would face either a Labour-New Zealand First or a National-New Zealand First government.
Shaw said one of the reasons Nelson was selected for the nationwide campaign launch was because the party had a "real chance" of unseating National MP Nick Smith, with its Nelson candidate Matt Lawrey.
"We wanted to send a really strong signal that we’re behind that campaign," Shaw said.
"Nelson is also a really strong area in terms of the Green Party vote.
To strong applause Holt replied: "I think we should give Nick the flick."