Today’s OECD environmental report has highlighted the urgent need for New Zealand to change direction and move to a low carbon, green economy, the Green Party said today. The OECD has said that New Zealand has the second-highest level of emissions per unit of GDP in the developed world. We also have the fifth-highest emissions per capita. “The New Zealand economy is highly carbon intensive and this can’t be sustained if we want to also play our part in addressing...

Plans to sell the Tāmaki Housing Association, possibly to overseas buyers, create uncertainty for thousands of Auckland families who have already had their lives and homes shaken up by the Government’s social housing fiasco, the Green Party said today. “We have a housing crisis and the number one priority should be increasing the supply of affordable, state, and community housing, not selling off social housing services,” said Green Party social housing spokesperson Marama Davidson. “People living in Tāmaki and Glen...

The Green Party says the Productivity Commission’s tertiary education recommendations would be a radical ideological experiment with a whole generation of students. The Commission’s report, released today, proposes bringing back interest on student loans and more deregulation of tertiary education. “We simply don’t think the future is that bad for tertiary education," said Green Party tertiary spokesperson Gareth Hughes. “Despite the lowest per-student funding in the OECD, all our universities are highly ranked internationally and have high quality teaching and...

  A proposal to take West Coast water and export it in bulk tankers with no public notification shows our environmental laws aren’t strong enough and proposed Government changes will only make that worse, the Green Party said today. “New Zealanders care passionately about water, and want to be able to have their say on water grabs happening around our country before it is too late,” Green Party environment spokesperson Eugenie Sage said. Okuru Enterprises Ltd wants to take glacial...

Protecting our finite and precious water resources should be the motivation for putting a charge on water, to ensure it is prudently and sustainably used, the Green Party said today. “The reason we need a charge on the commercial use of water is to protect water, ensure the community and tangata whenua get a return from private use of a public resource, and help fund better land and water management,” said Green Party water spokesperson Catherine Delahunty. National’s proposals to...

Confirmation today that Dunedin’s Cadbury factory will close is a blow for the hundreds of people who work there and their families, the Green Party said today. Factory owner Mondelez has indicated that a group, including council and union staff and local MPs, will work towards ensuring that some Kiwi brands will continue to be produced locally – a small silver lining in an otherwise difficult day for Dunedin.  “My thoughts are with the more than 300 people who are...

Today’s disappointing GDP numbers fail to capture what’s really going on in the New Zealand economy and with our day-to-day lives, the Green Party said today. Gross domestic product (GDP) statistics released today by Statistics New Zealand show that the official part of the New Zealand economy grew by 0.4 percent in the December 2016 quarter. Per capita GDP — a better reflection of people’s wellbeing — actually went backwards by 0.2 percent due to population increases. “GDP may be...

A majority of district health boards (DHBs) around the country don’t provide 24/7 access to sign language interpreters, which puts deaf people at significant risk in medical emergencies, the Green Party said today. A report released yesterday by Deaf Action New Zealand showed that only eight of 20 DHBs say they can provide access to sign language interpreters 24/7. Deaf Action’s investigation was prompted by the experience of Kim Robinson, who was unable to access an interpreter for 64 hours...

New Zealand should be working on positive new ways of creating international trade agreements, instead of participating in talks to try to resuscitate the dead-and-buried Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), the Green Party said today. Representatives from all the TPPA countries except the US have been meeting this week in Chile to discuss their next move. “It is disappointing that our Trade Minister is intent on flogging a dead horse rather than moving on and looking for better ways to support...

The Green Party is congratulating Māori organisations on their victory after Anne Tolley today indicated that the Government is going back to the drawing board on reforms to Child, Youth and Family (CYFs) that would have removed the prioritisation of whānau-first placements for tamariki Māori.