Protecting and restoring nature.
The Green Party stands for a healthy environment as the foundation of healthy communities.
In Aotearoa, our environment is the foundation of our communities and our identity. We all rely on clean rivers for safe drinking water. Our native forests and wetlands help reduce flooding. Healthy soils and abundant oceans provide kai. When our freshwater, native bush and moana thrive, we thrive too.
Luxon’s coalition Government has been the most environmentally damaging in a generation, prioritising private profit at the expense of te taiao (nature).
They have fast-tracked destructive mining projects in wild places and scrapped our Ministry for the Environment. They have changed laws to more easily allow the killing of native wildlife where it stands in the way of development, and allowed rivers, lakes and groundwater to become more polluted. Environmental laws have been gutted, alongside the dismantling of shared decision-making processes that honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
The Green Party will strengthen environmental protections, uphold Te Tiriti and restore te taiao. Protection and restoration of our environment is the foundation of our future.
Our plan
- Implement strong evidence-based limits for ecosystem health, secure the role of Te Tiriti and affirm the role of tangata whenua as shared decision-makers and kaitiaki in the new resource management system.
- Repeal the Fast-track Approvals Act and revoke consents for fast-track approvals for new coal, gold and seabed mining projects.
- Restore a standalone Ministry for the Environment. Increase resources for the Environmental Protection Authority to identify risks to the environment and human health, and for compliance, monitoring and enforcement to ensure polluters are held accountable.
- Update air quality standards to bring Aotearoa in line with international standards and to protect human health.
- Work towards eradication of biosecurity incursions, specifically wilding pines, Caulerpa, and yellow-legged hornets.
- Re-establish resources for the Community Environment Fund to support grassroots environmental education and action.