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For all of us
From our mountain glaciers to our wild coasts, Aotearoa is defined by water. Water has always shaped our land, our lives, and our livelihoods. Clean, safe water is a way of life for all of us. We will fix the rules to protect this way of life and our environment from exploitation.
The Green Party will fix the rules so all of us can drink, swim, and fish in the places we love.
Our Solutions
The Green Party will:
Set strong, science-based national standards for freshwater that protect both the health of our communities and the health of our rivers, lakes and aquifers, including by lowering the nitrate limit for drinking water.
Phase out synthetic nitrogen fertiliser and take action to reduce stocking rates on a catchment basis to improve the health of rivers and drinking water quality.
Phase out destructive fishing methods, including bottom trawling on seamounts, set netting and dredging.
Strengthen rules for wastewater discharges to ensure our rivers, lakes and moana are swimmable.
Protect at least 30% of New Zealand’s moana to restore marine ecosystems and support abundant fisheries by reforming marine-protected area legislation to ensure it is fit-for-purpose, Tiriti consistent, and tikanga-led.
Review the Quota Management System and move towards ecosystem-based fisheries management that prioritises abundance and long-term sustainability.
Empower the drinking water regulator to monitor, report on and enforce protections for drinking water sources.
Support kaitiakitanga Māori in marine management and iwi and hapū-led conservation and restoration initiatives.
Frequently asked questions
Between 1990 and 2023, the number of dairy cows in Aotearoa New Zealand increased by 71%, from 3.4 million to 5.9 million. All those cows need to eat. Nitrogen fertiliser is used to make grass grow. Growing more grass faster with fertiliser has facilitated intensive dairy farming. Between 1991 and 2019, synthetic nitrogen fertiliser use increased by 629%.
Using nitrogen fertiliser has serious impacts. This includes the pollution of rivers, lakes and groundwater. Over a third of our monitored groundwaters saw a rise in nitrate levels in the last two decades. It also poses risks to human health through nitrate contamination of community drinking water supplies.
The manufacture and use of synthetic fertiliser contributes to climate change, and has tipped the natural nitrogen cycle out of balance.
No. We cannot continue to rely on synthetic nitrogen indefinitely. Communities across Aotearoa are facing substantial costs because of the overuse of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. Communities are paying millions and even billions of dollars to find new drinking water sources or treat their water to remove pollutants.
Only 3% of nitrogen fertiliser is used to grow fruit and vegetables while 62% is used in the dairy industry. Most dairy is exported, and producing more has not made cheese or butter cheaper for New Zealanders.
In Aotearoa, our competitive advantage is in producing high-quality food from healthy land. Supporting New Zealand farmers to maximise value rather than volume will help them stay ahead of environmental or market pressures.
There will always be challenges in any transition. That includes adapting our farming systems to be profitable, resilient and sustainable in the long term. Farmers rely on healthy water and healthy soils and they know that we cannot keep prioritising more and more volume at any cost.
The Green Party will support farmers to reduce pollution at the source, rather than leaving communities to pay for polluted water and costly treatment upgrades.
We will start by lowering the current cap on synthetic nitrogen fertiliser for dairying, since this sector uses more than 60% of synthetic nitrogen and is the largest contributor to water pollution. We will work with farmers across other sectors to cut fertiliser use but we’ve not set a timeframe on this phase-out, recognising there are challenges.
We will work alongside industry to develop a clear implementation plan with milestones. We will also support regenerative farming initiatives. The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has invested in these sorts of programmes before through the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund.
There are already organic and regenerative farmers in Aotearoa making good livelihoods without synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. In fact, the payout to farmers for organic dairy is around one-third higher than for conventional dairy.
The Green Party supports an evidence-based review of the nitrate limit in drinking water. We also support taking a precautionary approach to protect people’s health.
The health of our communities and our environment must come before corporate profits. Emerging evidence shows a link between nitrate contamination of drinking water and bowel cancer and preterm births. This has prompted the Danish Government to commit to lowering their nitrate limit in drinking water by almost 90%.
In Aotearoa, recent research on more than 750,000 births nationwide found an average of 120 premature births each year could be attributed to nitrate in drinking water.
As kaitiaki of Aotearoa, Māori have developed marine preservation tools over generations. Reforming marine protection laws to embed tikanga and recognise Māori authority is an obligation. It’s also a chance to restore a healthy relationship with the ocean that lasts across generations. Kaitiakitanga Māori in marine management could look like more flexible spatial protection tools (rāhui) or more collaborative decision-making frameworks for marine protection.
Yes. The Green Party is committed to ending destructive fishing practices. We will phase out the destructive practice of bottom trawling, starting with an immediate ban on seamounts. We will then focus on ecologically sensitive areas such as Tīkapa Moana/Hauraki Gulf and Māui and Hector’s dolphin habitats.
Yes. The Green Party has a long-held position to ban seabed mining. In November 2025 we announced that if in government, we would revoke all Fast-track consents approved for seabed mining.
We will revoke consents for the most harmful projects including coal, gold and seabed mines.
All planning decisions should consider environmental limits, climate change and community and iwi/hapū voices. Right now, the Fast-track process prioritises growth above everything else. The Green Party will never support a process that bulldozes through environmental protections and sidelines the voices of tangata whenua and communities.