The Green Party is calling on the Government to immediately rule out selling off state houses to Australian interests, after Bill English conceded it was on the cards on The Nation this morning. “By revealing that Australian businesses have been looking to purchase our state houses at bargain-basement prices, Bill English is also admitting that no-one in New Zealand wants to buy them, and that his grand sell-off plan is in tatters,” said Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei.  “There’s such...

The Ruataniwha dam project should not proceed, as it has already sucked up $12million of Hawke’s Bay ratepayers’ money and $6m from the taxpayer, and questions still remain about the dam’s viability in the wake of yesterday’s Board of Inquiry decision, the Green Party said today. HBRIC, the investment arm of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, has also earmarked another $80m of ratepayers’ money to pay for construction. As parts of the Tukituki catchment are already very polluted by high...

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) has once again misjudged what is an appropriate use of taxpayers money by spending $11.4 million dollars on an apartment, said the Green Party today.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully must be clear whether New Zealand stands to get back any of the $11 million of taxpayer money, which he invested in a Saudi sheep farm, in the event the businessman who owns the farms sells up, the Green Party said today.

The New Zealand Government must dramatically increase its target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions as public demands for change both at home and internationally raise serious questions about inaction on climate, the Green Party said today. Last night, a Dutch court ordered the Dutch Government to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent in the next five years, in order to protect its citizens from climate change. It had been sued by citizens for neglecting to look after its people....

John Key must act today to stand down his Foreign Affairs Minister as the evidence mounts that Murray McCully has mislead both Cabinet and New Zealanders in his bid to further the interests of a Saudi businessman, the Green Party said today. Today the Green Party revealed details in a 2011 letter to Mr McCully showing he had been actively involved in talks with Saudi businessman Hamood Al-Ali Al-Khalaf about the resumption of live sheep transports to Saudi Arabia since...

Child Youth and Family (CYF) investigations into the safety of children should be mandatory in domestic violence cases involving families with children, the Green Party said today. The Greens’ call comes after two high profile judicial decisions this week – the coronial inquiry into the deaths of Bradley and Ellen Livingstone and the verdict in the trial of the West Auckland boys charged with the death of Arun Kumar. “Each of those cases revealed a well-documented history of domestic violence,”...

The Green Party is calling for a stand-alone agency to monitor and provide for prisoners’ health needs. The call for a stand-alone agency comes after a Coroner’s report into the death of a remand prisoner, Jai Davis, at a South Otago jail in 2011.  The Coroner expressed concern that the health of the prisoner was not the main priority of Corrections.  

State houses should be warm and dry, and not require tenants to beg for more help, the Green Party said today. “John Key’s assertion that those in poor quality state housing should ‘reach out for more help’ mocks the fact that 40,000 children are hospitalised each year with respiratory illnesses that their damp, cold housing has helped cause,” said Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei. “People are reaching out for help, and asking to be transferred out of their mouldy, wet...

The Green Party supports moves by some within National to institute a corporate manslaughter charge in the Health and Safety Reform Bill.   Justice Minister Amy Adams has reportedly brought to Cabinet a suggestion that there be a corporate manslaughter charge included in the Health and Safety Reform Bill. This would mean, for example, that the charge of corporate manslaughter would have been available to those investigating the Pike River tragedy. It could attract substantial penalties and fines.