We have chalked up some real achievements since the election of our seven Green MPs to parliament. The highlight of the last week has been the passage of Jeanette Fitzsimons Energy Efficiency Bill through its committee stages. This will be the first Green bill to pass through Parliament and represents a significant step forward in four key areas. It is the first piece of NZ legislation to address climate change. It gives the Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority legislative status. It will require the government to set up New Zealand's first real national energy savings plan, which includes a major role for local communities as well as the business sector and finally, and most importantly, by setting energy efficiency standards, it will protect consumers against wasteful household appliances and vehicles and ensure buildings are better insulated.
Jeanette's bill isn't our only recent success. Last week Keith Locke convinced the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee to hold an inquiry into the human rights implications of New Zealand's foreign, trade and defence policies. Ian Ewen-Street persuaded the Primary Production Select Committee to conduct an inquiry into the potential for expanding markets for organic agriculture. Sue Kedgley highlighted animal welfare concerns, particularly pigs being caged in sow crates, when a petition was presented to parliament and she also rattled the cages of the House Committee where decisions are made on the menu at Parliament's restaurant, Bellamys, by calling for the menu to be free of genetically engineered ingredients, not to have pork that has been grown sow crates and for organic options to be available.
Sue Kedgley also highlighted the hypocrisy of a tax payer funded government institution, Ag Research, applying for a genetic engineered field trial for sheep at the same time as the Government says it will seek a voluntary moratorium on field trials. Jeanette tried to debate the issue by seeking leave to introduce her private members bill calling for a mandatory moratorium on field trials while the royal commission is conducting its inquiry but this was blocked in parliament. Nandor Tanczos reinforced our strong position on genetic engineering by protesting at Ruakura at the beginning of the week.
Sue Bradford had one of her quieter weeks in parliament, after a heavy workload on accident compensation and employment relations legislation but still forcefully put our position at the select committee financial review of WINZ.
Lastly, I spoke on the budget policy statement review where I said the Government must shift its thinking away from economic growth to ecological sustainability (environmental education). I also highlighted the contradictions in the Government's call for greater identity through arts and sport when at the same time more and more of New Zealand's farms, forests, city centres and businesses are falling into foreign ownership because of lack of restrictions on foreign control and Kiwis are continuing to lose their jobs in the manufacturing centre because we are importing more and more goods that we used to make ourselves.
The above examples illustrate some of what the Green MPs working on in the public arena. Behind the scenes we are also very active, both in parliament and in the community.
In the last week Sue Bradford and I made a submission to Don Hunn who is reviewing performance of WINZ. The MMP review committee was set up which incorporated terms of reference we had a hand in developing. I have been working with National and Act to defeat the Electoral Integrity Bill, otherwise known as the MMP gagging bill, which Labour and the Alliance are trying to push through with support from New Zealand First. Jeanette has been working with the Government on ensuring the terms of reference and makeup of the Royal Commission into Genetic engineering is as close as possible to our position.
Keith Locke has been networking European Greens on the inquiry they are conducting into the Echelon system which operates at the Waihopai spy base. Ian Ewen-Street has been probing on Timberlands at his select committee.
Last week illustrates the unique role the Green Party plays in Parliament, particularly in the context of our relationship with the minority Labour Alliance Government. It is a challenge to find the right balance between achieving our goals, endorsed by 106,000 voters while not holding the Government to ransom. We do our best to take a principled approach by improving legislation where we can but not by trading away our policies or good process in another area.
Sometimes the Government is totally dependent on our support, without which legislation would not be introduced or passed through Parliament. Examples are the ACC and Employment Relations Bills. Sometimes we can play an important role in brokering improvements to legislation which would not have happened under the old two party adversarial system. One example of this is the improvements which we were able to make to ACC legislation for small employees and farmers. The third role is negotiating directly with the Government to improve proposed legislation or terms of reference before their introduction to Parliament. The Royal Commission on genetic engineering and the MMP Review are examples of that. We also find ourselves co-operating with opposition parties to stop the Government, an example being the MMP gagging bill. Finally we need to take on all the grey parties as we did with the Waihopai spy base and could well find ourselves dealing with the Moratorium Bill on Genetic Engineering Field Trials.
Green MPs have also been actively networking with a wide range of community and sector groups since the election. In addition to the groups which we already have a good relationship with such as those in the environmental movement we have been lobbied by the likes of Federated Farmers and the Manufacturers Federation. It is pleasing to find that although we have our differences there is often some common ground with these bodies. We have also been building good relations with the Trade Union Movement in particular where previously there had been only limited contact. The MMP environment generally and our balance of power position in particular means it is important for sector groups to seek us out.
We have also been establishing our presence in the community with new MPs opening out of parliament offices. Sue Bradford has established offices in Whangarei and Warkworth, Keith Locke and Nandor Tanczos have opened an office in central Auckland, Ian Ewen-Street has opened an office in Blenheim and taken over responsibility for my Nelson office and I am delighted to be able to transfer those resources here to Dunedin to establish a Green Party Parliamentary presence in the Deep South. Sue Kedgley will soon be opening an office in Wellington, Jeanette of course has her Coromandel office and I have one in Christchurch which I soon hope to be shifting to a more central location.
It is important we have a good presence throughout the country within the constraints of our budget and the ability of MPs to service out of parliament offices. While it is clearly vitally important that we have a presence in the deep south, I know I stretched myself too thinly after the last election by trying to cover three "away from home" electorates in addition to Christchurch.
Purely on the basis of the support we received in the five local electorates you could expect half an MP in return for the more than 7,500 party votes people who gave their party vote to the Greens. I hope with your volunteer efforts staffing the office and our visits south will mean local supporters feel they are getting value for their vote. I intend to visit Dunedin every month or so and the office will also provide a base for other Green MPs when they are in town. Ian Ewen-Street, Keith Locke and Nandor Tanczos have been to Dunedin since the election.
I know that does not equate with having your own MP but I hope our presence will help to build our profile as an effective force in parliament which in turn will lead to more Green MPs being elected in 2002, including, I hope one from Dunedin.
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