A huge underspend in special education shows that Government Budget promises can’t be trusted and Ministers have no idea about the real needs of children, the Green Party says. More than $32 million of funding for children with special needs has not been spent by the Government, despite families of children with special needs complaining for years that they’ve been denied the support they deserve. “It’s hard to know whether this is deliberate penny pinching or a complete lack of...

Dark clouds are hanging over the National Government’s tattered image as a responsible manager of the economy following John Key’s hollow pre-Budget speech, the Green Party said today. “John Key’s speech lacks a vision for a better New Zealand. All he announced today is a lower-than-inflation adjustment for research and development spending and a standard school-building programme to keep up with population growth,” Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said. “For years, National has always said that returning the Government’s books...

Reports this morning that landlords are still reluctant to insulate homes for their tenants, despite subsidies to do so, show the urgent need for a Warrant of Fitness for rental homes, the Green Party says. "Making it voluntary for landlords to provide a healthy home for tenants is clearly not working and it’s time that minimum standards for rentals are made mandatory," Green Party housing spokesman Kevin Hague said. "More than a million adults and half a million New Zealand...

The Green Party is happy the Government is adopting key sections of Denise Roche’s members’ bill that winds back the worst aspects of National’s unfair zero hours law.

John Key has once again shown how out of touch he is with ordinary New Zealanders by denying there’s a crisis in the Auckland housing market, the Green Party said today. “John Key obviously doesn’t know what it’s like for a young couple wanting to buy their first home in Auckland, who are constantly being outbid by investors looking to make a quick buck,” said Green Party housing spokesperson Kevin Hague. “He needs to stop denying there’s a housing crisis...

The Government’s greenhouse gas inventory, released today, shows that in the last recorded year of 2013, twice the area of land was deforested as opposed to planted with new trees. 

The Government must be deeply embarrassed that it won’t achieve its long-promised Budget surplus this year, the Green Party said today. Government financial statements published today show a $269 million deficit in the Crown’s operating balance before gains and losses, and an operating balance deficit of $952 million, in the eight months to 28 February 2015. This follows media reports yesterday that Finance Minister Bill English has “all but given up” on reaching surplus this financial year. “Bill English has...

Closing provincial prisons is counterproductive to rehabilitating prisoners and integrating them back into the community said the Green Party today.

The number of jobs in the screen industry has been in decline since 2009, despite National’s promise that its backroom deals with Warner Bros would secure more jobs here, the Green Party said today.

The Green Party is calling for a total ban on recreational set nets in the Banks Peninsula Marine Mammal Sanctuary to stop more Hector’s dolphins from being caught in them and drowning. Scientists have today confirmed the death of a Hector’s dolphin found in Akaroa Harbour was caused by a set net. Current legislation allows set nets to be used in some inner bays of Akaroa Harbour from 1 April to 30 September to catch flat-fish. Set nets create a...