News

  • Scrapping RMA and OIO would undermine New Zealand dream

    “It would appear that the price of the Epsom deal and a National ACT Government is the open slather sale of New Zealand to overseas buyers and unchecked environment degradation,” Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman said today. “The RMA is a land mark piece of legislation that protects our environment. A National Act Government will undermine those protections and in the process not only destroy the environment but our economy. “It would seem if voters in Epsom vote for...
  • National cannot investigate themselves

    The narrow Terms of Reference of the inquiry into Judith Collins’ conduct will do nothing to clean up our political system, the Green Party said today. Today, John Key released the very narrow Terms of Reference for a Government inquiry. The inquiry will only look into the allegations that Ms Collins ‘gunned for’ Mr Adam Feleey while he was the Director of the Serious Fraud Office. “The narrow Terms of Reference shows that National cannot be trusted to investigate their...
  • Greens help smaller towns upgrade sewage systems

    The Green Party today announced it will invest $20 million per year for ten years to help small towns and communities upgrade sewage treatment systems. The announcement is the fourth component of the Party’s environmental priority this election: rivers clean enough for swimming and beaches safe from oil spills. Many small communities struggle to pay for the infrastructure required to keep sewage out of their rivers. That is why the Green Party is re-establishing the Sanitary Works Subsidy Scheme (SWSS)...
  • National's water announcement is election band-aid

    "National’s water announcement is an election band-aid on a gaping wound because it doesn’t address the main cause of water pollution: intensification of land use,” Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman said today. John Key announced that $100 million would be spent on retiring land next to important waterways, and that dairy farmers would be required to fence streams on their properties by 2017. To date, National has allocated $120 of the $400 million it ear-marked in 2011 for irrigation...
  • Workers to get a better, fairer deal under Green Party

    The Green Party today announced a workers' package that is part of its plan to build a fairer society where all workers have enough to live on. The key policy points in the Green Party's plan to make life better for all New Zealand workers are: Lifting low wages by moving the minimum wage to $18 an hour by 2017 and introducing a Living Wage for the core Government sector. A new legislative minimum redundancy package of four weeks' pay....
  • National's dirty politics hurts everyday New Zealanders

    National's alleged involvement in dirty politics makes it appear that the Government is  looking out for its mates instead of everyday New Zealanders, the Green Party believes, after new allegations that one of John Key's senior Ministers may have been aware of attempts to undermine the Serious Fraud Office's investigations into finance company collapses.