The Green Party will take a Tiriti-based approach to financial and material security. We will ensure that the income support system is sufficient, accessible, and dignifying, and recognises unpaid labour. We will support low-income households to minimise debt, including regulating lenders. We will ensure that everyone has access to the services and resources they need to meet their basic needs.
Vision
Everyone has enough income and resources to live a fulfilling life with dignity and participate fully in society.
Values and Principles
Income support and other related policy decisions must be consistent with the following values and principles:
- Honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Hapū and iwi Māori have the right to self-determination of their livelihoods.
- Ecological Wisdom: We can choose to have a thriving society, where everyone has enough, that works in harmony with the natural world.
- Social Responsibility: We have a responsibility to equitably support all those who live on this land to flourish.
- Appropriate Decision-Making: Decisions must be made through appropriate engagement with experts and those impacted by the decision, to find effective pathways forward.
- Non-Violence: Everyone has the right to livelihoods that are free from institutionalised violence, coercion and discrimination.
Strategic Priorities
The Green Party’s strategic goals include:
“Poverty will be eliminated, everyone will have enough income and wealth will be held more equally.”
Actions in this policy that will help achieve this include:
- Increasing main benefit levels to a liveable income and ensuring supplementary benefits are sufficient. (1.2.1)
- Ensure that welfare service delivery is proactive, mana-enhancing, accessible, and inclusive of a diverse range of people’s needs (1.3)
- Establishing a legal right to a minimum income and guaranteeing this income. (1.4.3)
- Pass legislation that prevents exploitative lending and debt collection, relating to both currency and goods. (2.2)
- Resourcing underfunded basic services that support well-being, including preventative and/or early intervention services. (3.1.1)
- Legislating clear rights, rooted in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, for basic resources, and legislating the responsibilities of the Crown to provide them. (3.2.3)
Connected Policies
As well as income support, the role of the Government in the Economy includes taxation and redistribution of wealth. Livelihoods are also affected by policy areas such as Workforce, Education, Housing, and Climate Change. Some areas experience more livelihood challenges with cascading impacts (see our Community and the Economy, Health and Justice Policy, for example), as do different sectors (e.g. Agriculture and Arts).
