Environment Canterbury (ECan) must take tougher action on farmers who let stock graze in rivers and lakes, to stop further pollution of our waterways, the Green Party said today.

New data that shows business executives received 12 percent pay rises last year, on average, while over 40 percent of all working people received no pay rise at all shows we need action to rebalance our economy, the Green Party said.* “The evidence is clear that economic inequality creates serious social issues – but we can address these issues by taxing the highest earners a bit more. They can afford it,” Green Party workplace relations spokesperson Denise Roche said. “When...

Taking more tax cuts off the table was the right move for Bill English to make in his pre-Budget speech today, the Green Party said. “It’s good that the Government has realised that tax cuts aren’t the kind of medicine our economy needs right now,” Green Party finance spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said. “National’s tax cut bribes have historically benefitted people on high incomes, and come at the expense of fixing problems like child poverty and the housing crisis. “There...

The proposed merger of New Zealand’s largest newspaper publishers is bad news for a diverse media environment and shows the need for independent regulation to oversee media ownership issues, the Green Party said. “A free, diverse, and competitive media is hugely important for democracy,” Green Party broadcasting spokesperson Gareth Hughes said. “The proposed merger highlights New Zealand’s international outlier status, lacking rules regulating media ownership and diversity. “The Green Party has long advocated broader criteria for independent media regulation, similar...

It’s time for the Government to act to solve the housing crisis as the Reserve Bank again called for stronger Government action, the Green Party said. “The Government is moving too slowly and cautiously on housing, but actually there are many things it could do right now that would make a difference, including a proper capital gains tax (excluding the family home),” Green Party finance spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said. “The Government’s blaming everyone but itself for the housing crisis,...

The Green Party is today calling on the Prime Minister to apologise for smearing some of New Zealand’s leading charities, as well as a Green MP, in Parliament in an attempt to take the heat off his Government over the foreign trusts tax-dodging scandal. Yesterday John Key used Parliamentary privilege to wrongly claim that Amnesty, Greenpeace and the Red Cross had been implicated in the Panama Papers leak, and that Green MP Mojo Mathers had a foreign trust. The charities...

Data released today by LINZ gives no real insight into the influence of non-resident foreign speculators on the New Zealand housing market, the Green Party said today. “By LINZ’s own admission, this is nowhere near the full picture on how many non-resident foreign buyers are snapping up properties in New Zealand,” said Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei. “New Zealanders desperately need the Government to collect definitive information on the number of non-resident foreign housing speculators operating in New Zealand, and...

The Government can start the clean-up of the foreign trust industry as early as tonight by supporting the Green Party’s proposed changes to a Government tax bill being voted on this evening. Green Party finance spokesperson Julie Anne Genter will put forward an SOP to the Government’s Taxation (Transformation: First Phase Simplification and Other Measures) Bill that will require trustees, settlors, and beneficiaries of foreign trusts to disclose to the IRD their name, date of birth, address, passport number and...

The National Government helped facilitate Mossack Fonsecca’s tax avoidance business in New Zealand when it put a stop to Inland Revenue’s proposed review of foreign trust regulation, the Green Party says.

The Government’s financial update today shows its focus on maintaining a wafer-thin surplus has come at the expense of real ideas about how to tackle the big economic problems we face, like child poverty, unemployment, and the housing crisis, the Green Party said. Government Financial Statements for the nine months to 31 March 2016, the last update before the Budget on 26 May, showed a modest $167 million operating balance before gains and losses and net government debt of $63.3...