The Green Party is calling for more government observers on commercial fishing vessels and at ports following the release of an international study showing major under-reporting of commercial fish catches in New Zealand waters. “The Government can’t claim that our fisheries management is sustainable when it clearly has no idea how many fish are being taken,” said Green Party primary industries spokesperson Eugenie Sage. A new report by the University of British Columbia, with research from the University of Auckland, shows...

Auckland Council’s decision to replace safe hot water-based weed control with the potentially toxic herbicide glyphosate in playgrounds, parks, and streets raises questions about whether communities are having their desire to remain spray-free ignored, the Green Party said. On Friday, an attempt by two Auckland Councillors to return to using hot water-based weed management across the whole city was ruled out of order. “It looks like communities and local boards who want to be spray free are being ignored by...

Urgent action is needed to increase the supply of warm, healthy rental homes after a TV3 investigation into homelessness and overcrowding in Auckland. “People are saying the housing crisis was ten years in the making. For most of those ten years, National’s been in charge while New Zealand has become a country where families are forced to live in garages and cars,” Green Party social housing spokesperson Marama Davidson said. “Families heading into a winter of sleeping in a cold...

The Government should be focused on helping problem gamblers and their families, not producing PR that glorifies the pokie machine industry, the Green Party said. The Department of Internal Affairs is producing an e-booklet to “promote the benefit of gaming machine funding to communities”, announced this week in its regular Gambits:now newsletter for the gambling industry. “The Government should be helping problem gamblers get their lives back on track, not wasting public money on PR for the pokies industry,” Green...

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...