The Green Party will actively support resilient regional economic development, including through infrastructure development and procurement. We will remove barriers to local economies and encourage new, sustainable local industries. We will take a Tiriti-based approach to the tangata whenua, community and voluntary sector, focusing on strengthening government and business relationships with the sector, improving funding and accountability, and maintaining its independence.
Vision
Community wellbeing and local ecosystems are enhanced by resilient local economies and a strong, independent tangata whenua, community and voluntary sector.
Values and Principles
Policy decisions that impact community economic development must be consistent with the following values and principles:
- Honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Local hapū and iwi should lead the development of local economies.
- Ecological Wisdom: Local economic activity should have an enduring, net-restorative outcome for local ecosystems.
- Social Responsibility: Local economies should equitably serve their communities and enhance community wellbeing.
- Appropriate Decision-Making: Communities should be empowered to shape their economies.
- Non-Violence: Local economic activity should be equitably supported to address historic and current systemic oppression.
- Risk-taking and Innovation: Community economies and organisations should be recognised and cherished for exploring the cutting edge of our social, political, economic and environmental development.
Strategic Priorities
The Green Party’s strategic goals include:
“...thriving neighbourhoods will be available to everyone.
“Meaningful work will be available and people will have sufficient time to enjoy and participate in their communities.
“All people will be empowered to shape the systems that affect them…”
Actions in this policy that will help achieve this include:
- Providing flexible funding, advice, and partnerships to support community-led approaches to community development, resilience, and revitalisation; (1.2.2)
- Funding initiatives that keep local resources circulating locally, increase economic diversity, and minimise dependence on fossil fuels. (1.3.1)
- Undertaking adaptive community economic planning and mapping processes to proactively manage predicted changes in population, climate, energy, and the wider economy. (1.3.2)
- Enabling local currencies, community banks, credit unions, time banking schemes, and other local alternative economic systems (1.3.6)
- Ensuring Māori maintain ownership over taonga created by Māori within tangata whenua, community and voluntary sector organisations, including intellectual property, regardless of Government funding. (2.1.5)
- Enhance tangata whenua, community, and voluntary sector participation in policy and planning processes at all levels of Government (2.3)
Connected Policies
The Government in the Economy plays an important role in enabling Business to better support wider community vitality and resilience. Local economies are supported by infrastructure for Transport, Digital and communications technology, and Energy. Our Housing and Sustainable Communities Policy supports mixed-use zones for compact, walkable communities in which all basic needs can be met. Local economies are also affected by Global Affairs, including Climate Change.
