Labour was given every opportunity to implement tighter forestry slash regulations after they received recommendations in 2020, says National's forestry spokesperson.
Talking to Newshub Nation on The Pitch, Joseph Mooney was critical of Labour's lack of urgent action and had suggestions for how National would mitigate the damage slash can cause.
"For example, slash traps," Mooney said. "There were recommendations about how to improve the regulatory environment for those so that councils could consent those better.
"There were also recommendations around actually including slash management, specifically in forestry harvesting plans."
However, Mooney admitted the previous National Government had also taken inadequate action on slash.
When asked to point to something National had done to improve the situation with forestry slash during their term, he replied: "No. Quite frankly I can't."
"This is a long-standing issue," he said, before repeating that recommendations that came back in 2020 following the 2018 Tolaga Bay flooding and slash incident had still not been acted on.
"That 2020 report also warned them that there was going to be an increased frequency of extreme weather events."
Mooney thought the lack of action on the 2020 recommendations was particularly poor considering the Labour Government also declared a climate emergency that same year.
"They have not acted urgently, so I don't think that's good enough."
Mooney thought the forestry industry is turning out well to help with the cleanup after cyclones Hale and Gabrielle.
"They have been pouring their resources into the clean up, so that's a good thing."
However, he emphasised the main focus needs to be, "How do we prevent this sludge from coming downstream?"
Mooney went on to highlight the problem doesn't end with slash.
"It's also forest debris. It's other woody debris from poplar willow."
Looking forward, Mooney thought the penalties for forestry companies that do not meet standards need to be considered.
"We do think the regime should be looked at and look at an increase in those penalties.
"The current maximum penalty is $600,000. There should be a clear signal that it should be higher."
But Mooney did recognise the importance of forestry to New Zealand's economy.
"Forestry is New Zealand's third biggest export sector.
"We need to make sure we've got good standards in place that make it really clear for councils who monitor and ensure compliance as well as consent for forestry activities," he said.
Mooney also said the Government must make clear to forestry companies "what is required from them so that we can ensure we're not hurting people downstream."
The challenge remains how to introduce stricter regulation without impacting the forestry industry's bottom line.
"Slash management needs to be part of any harvesting plan," Mooney said.
But he recognises "it won't be simple to always deliver on it because we're dealing with very steep terrain and forests that were planted 30 years ago."
But the main solution he emphasised was slash traps.
With slash traps, Mooney believes "we can stop this wood coming downstream if it gets in the waterways."
"We've got eight weeks of an inquiry. We're already one week into it. We still don't know who's going to be consulted on it," Mooney said.
Asked whether forestry was a portfolio he would want if National wins the election, Mooney replied" "I think this is an awesome portfolio."
"It has a huge amount of options, obviously a lot of challenges as well," he continued.
"But forestry is a key part of the New Zealand economy and I'm excited to be the spokesperson for it."
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