The Treasury’s announcement today that a deficit for the 2014-15 financial year is likely shows that the Government is failing to meet the key economic target that it set itself, the Green Party said today. “National has always emphasised that achieving a surplus is its number one goal, but it looks like it will fail to achieve that goal and instead we’ll have a $572 million deficit this financial year,” Green Party Co-leader Russel Norman said. “We’re now seeing evidence...

The Government has distanced itself from the Auckland Council decision to allow the destruction of a centuries-old kauri and rimu trees in Titirangi to make way for two houses, the Green Party said today. When asked by Green Party conservation spokesperson Eugenie Sage in Parliament today about the lack of protection afforded to the kauri by the Resource Management Act, Environment Minister Nick Smith said it was up to councils to decide the fate of such trees and he would...

Children in poverty can’t wait for the Budget to bring them enough food, or shoes -  they need urgent Government action in the wake of evidence that one in six kids are going without the basics, the Green Party says. In their latest book, The Child Poverty Debate, Professors Jonathan Boston and Simon Chapple contrast the country’s focus on the needs of older New Zealanders with the poverty crisis facing children, and say one in six kids are suffering from...

The removal of protection for urban trees by the Government is threatening a 500-year-old kauri tree, and is just the thin end of the wedge if the Government is to gut the Resource Management Act (RMA) further, the Green Party said today. “When it’s ok for one of our oldest and most treasured trees to be chopped down to maximise profit, and allowed under the latest changes to the RMA, there’s something very wrong here. Environmental protection in our legislation...

John Key needs to come clean with New Zealanders and explain how it is lawful for the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) to spy, without a warrant, on New Zealand citizens who are part of the governments of the Cook Islands and Niue, said the Green Party today.

Kiwi women will have to wait 120 years, until the year 2134, before they earn as much as their male counterparts, the Green Party said today.

The Green Party is calling on the National Government to release their cost benefit analysis of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

The Green Party has lodged a complaint with the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) over allegations that the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) has been spying on New Zealanders in the Pacific.

The Government needs to beef up the monitoring of a harmful airborne particle in order to protect New Zealanders’ health, the Green Party said today. The call follows today’s release of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s "The State of Air Quality in New Zealand" report. Among recommendations made by Commissioner Dr Jan Wright was a call for the Ministry for the Environment to include monitoring and reporting of the potentially fatal airborne particle PM2.5. Main sources of PM2.5 in...

Environment Canterbury (ECan) needs to revise the proposed Canterbury regional air plan and beef up its monitoring and controls on harmful airborne particles to protect the health of Christchurch and Timaru residents, the Green Party said today. The call follows today’s release of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s  report on "The State of Air Quality in New Zealand". Among recommendations made by Commissioner Dr Jan Wright was a call for the Ministry for the Environment to include monitoring and...