Greens secure two more important bills from ballot

New measures that will sit alongside GDP to chart the nation’s progress, as well as compulsory country-of-origin labelling on food, will be debated in Parliament following today’s Member’s Bill ballot.

The Green Party had two bills pulled from the ballot today: Co-leader James Shaw’s Public Finance (Sustainable Development Indicators) Amendment Bill, and MP Steffan Browning’s Consumers’ Right to Know (Country of Origin of Food) Bill.

“GDP is a highly imperfect measure of our country’s progress,” said Green Party Co-leader James Shaw.

“My bill will add new environmental indicators to our national set of accounts relating to changes to our biodiversity, air and atmosphere, water quality, land use, energy use, waste, and population.

“GDP has been increasing recently, yet this one measure of progress conceals declines in our overall prosperity and quality of life, like the rapidly diminishing state of our rivers and lakes, or the increasing levels of carbon pollution in our atmosphere.

“The way we define and measure progress goes to the very core of how we run our economy. If we change the measure, we’re likely to change the outcome for the better,” said Mr Shaw.

“My Consumers' Right to Know (Country of Origin of Food) Bill will ensure that New Zealanders will more easily be able to see where their food comes from,” said Green Party food safety spokesperson Steffan Browning.

“Knowing where food comes from enables you to make informed decisions about what you’re buying and how it was produced.

“For example, Kiwis would be surprised to learn that more than half of all pork on our supermarket shelves comes from overseas.

“We already have mandatory country of origin labelling for clothes and shoes; there is no reason why we can’t extend this to food. Country of origin labelling is the norm overseas.

“New Zealand’s food producers want it, New Zealanders want it — the time for country of origin labelling is now,” said Mr Browning.

Volunteer

The Greens are proud to be driven by passionate people like you. Today we need your help to take action on the biggest issues facing New Zealand.

Action

Save Auckland's Climate Budget

Sign the petition to stop Mayor Wayne Brown's proposal for dangerous cuts to climate and environmental programmes that protect us from extreme weat...

Action

No New Mines 2023

Action

Expand Voting

Now more than ever, young people in Aotearoa are impacted by Government decisions, and they deserve to have a say. We are calling on all Members of...

Action

End Intensive Winter Grazing

Sign the petition to Labour Ministers, to move faster in bringing regulations into force and end intensive winter grazing.

Action

Trains for Climate

Add your name to our open letter urging the Minister for Finance Grant Robertson to save our passenger trains between Wellington, the Wairarapa and...

Action

Healthy Oceans 2022

Join our Healthy Oceans Crew to help us keep the health and protection of our oceans high on the Labour Government’s political agenda.

Action

It's time: A Ministry for Rainbow Communities

Join our call asking the Prime Minister to establish a Ministry for Rainbow Communities that can champion Rainbow issues.

Action

No new mines on conservation land

Sign the open letter asking Labour Ministers to stick to their promise of banning new mining projects on conservation land.

Action

Allow community ownership of our buses

Public transport is an essential service and helps to tackle the climate crisis by reducing our carbon emissions. But there are barriers to communi...

Action

Local Events

We have activists across Aotearoa / New Zealand who are working hard to build a brighter future for our kids and grandkids. This page lists upcomin...

Latest Finance Announcements

Story

Tax the banks

Instead of creating an appeal fund and one-off lotto draw, the Labour Government could tax the billions of dollars banks have made in unearned, exc...

Urgent action needed to support families

The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party ...

BPS constraints risk impacting low income people the most

The Government will constrain itself unnecessarily at Budget 2023 unless it changes the tax system to raise revenue from the wealthiest few which c...

Case for excess profit tax on banks clearer than ever

The Government should adopt an excess profits tax and use any revenue raised to help people make ends meet, following the rise in the Official Cash...

Tax excess profits, don’t leave it to the good will of large corporations

The Green Party is once again calling on the Government to introduce an excess profits tax and use the money to support people, rather than relying...

RBNZ report strengthens case for excess profit tax and more income support

A drop in household income from rising bank interest rates further demonstrates the need for an excess profits tax, the Green Party says.