The latest figures from the Government about getting people off benefits don’t translate into more jobs for New Zealanders, the Green Party says. Benefit numbers from the Government show that although fewer people are receiving welfare, the number of cancelled benefits as a result of “Obtained Work” has also dropped. “National needs to show their heavy-handed sanction-based approach to welfare is actually getting more people off benefits and into work. The numbers suggest it is not.” Green Party Social Development spokesperson Jan Logie said...

It’s very disappointing that the Far North Regional Council has dumped a pioneering and innovative, community and iwi owned waste management enterprise, the Green Party said today. “Cleanstream has been dealing with the Far North’s waste for over twenty years, and has made a huge contribution to the community and the local environment. It’s sad to see them dumped,” Green Party waste spokesperson Denise Roche said. “Cleanstream pioneered kerbside recycling in New Zealand and worked with Far North communities on...

Footage of prison fight clubs is yet another example of major flaws in National’s prison privatisation plan, said the Green Party today.

Now that the four biggest parties in Parliament agree on the way forward, it’s time for the Government to get on with simplifying provisional tax for small businesses, the Green Party said today. “The Green Party has been talking about simplifying provisional tax for small businesses, like Labour suggested today, since before the 2011 election,” Green Party Co-leader James Shaw said. “Anyone who talks to small business operators knows how annoying and difficult the current guesswork-based provisional tax system can...

News that Fonterra will axe 523 jobs shows that the human effects of the tumbling global dairy price are being felt throughout New Zealand, the Green Party said today. “These job cuts are a tragedy for the 523 staff and their families, who will now be joining rural workers and indebted farmers in financial insecurity,” Green Party primary industries spokesperson Eugenie Sage said. “Ultimately, these workers are bearing the cost of the National Government putting all its bottles in the...

It is hypocritical of Nick Smith to celebrate the reduction in nitrogen in Lake Taupo while at the same time, the National Government is converting more forests into dairy farms just down the road, said the Green Party today.

Plummeting global dairy prices overnight show why the Government needs to invest in adding value not volume to the dairy sector, the Green Party said today. “Just doing more of the same – expanding stock numbers and raw commodity exports – leaves the rural economy open to the risks of continuing low global dairy prices,” Green Party primary industries spokesperson Eugenie Sage said. “National’s economic strategy bets the farm on high international dairy prices rather than building a diversified, R&D...

Official advice to the Government proves what the Green Party has been saying all along, that you cannot lift children out of poverty without addressing low income. Radio NZ has obtained new information - which Government had redacted from a previous Official Information Act response – that the Government wouldn’t solve child poverty without raising incomes.  “The Government chose to hide the fact its policies weren’t going to solve poverty because it did not want to raise low wages or...

The National Government’s voluntary guidelines for spreading toxic oil and gas waste on farmland ignore the concerns of New Zealand’s environmental watchdog about the dangers of heavy metal contamination, and could lead to greater risks to people and animals, the Green Party says. “MPI’s guidelines for spreading of oil and gas waste on farmland ignore concerns of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment about the danger of contamination by heavy metals, for example, barium and cadmium, and the need for...

New research by the London School of Economics shows that the National Government’s assumption that action on climate change will cost more than inaction is wrong, the Green Party said today. The research, published by two research institutes at the London School of Economics, concludes that the majority of the global emissions reductions needed to decarbonise the global economy can be achieved in ways that are nationally net-beneficial to countries, even leaving aside the climate benefits. “Reducing emissions and economic...