Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei is delighted to today accept the Public Health Association’s Tū rangatira mō te Ora award 2016 for her work on addressing equity issues for Māori and reducing child poverty in New Zealand. Previous award winners have included Dame Tariana Turia, and National Rheumatic Fever Co-ordinator Helen Herbert. “I am pleased to accept this award, but there is still a lot of work ahead to end child poverty in Aotearoa,” Mrs Turei said. “No New Zealand...

Two special schools, and an unknown number of mainstream schools, are continuing to use seclusion rooms, despite the Education Minister’s recent moves to outlaw them, the Green Party said today. The Green Party has obtained answers to written Parliamentary questions which show that two special schools are continuing to use seclusion rooms. “For the welfare of the children at those schools, I am calling on Hekia Parata to immediately decommission all seclusion rooms,” Green Party education spokesperson Catherine Delahunty said...

The Paris Climate Agreement coming into force is a triumph for ordinary people around New Zealand and the world who have demanded politicians take action to stop climate change, the Green Party said today. The Paris Climate Agreement will come into force today after crossing the threshold of at least 55 countries, responsible for 55 percent of global emissions, joining the agreement. “Around the world there’s a real desire for action on climate change, and I think we’ve seen that shift here...

National’s gold-plated Pūhoi to Warkworth motorway will suck good money away from more valuable, worthwhile transport projects in Auckland and Northland for decades to come, the Green Party said today. Transport Minister Simon Bridges announced today that work will finally start on its so-called Road of National Significance from Pūhoi to Warkworth, 18 kilometres of motorway with a benefit cost ratio of just 1.1 to 1.2. “This motorway won't do anything to help Northland, it just sucks up funding for...

National’s much touted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) are a shambles and the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill (RLA Bill) should not proceed the Green Party said today. Parliament’s Local Government and Environment select committee is due to report the Bill back to the House by Tuesday 7 November. “The Bill significantly increases Ministerial powers to interfere in district and regional plans and limits the public’s ability to comment on RMA plans and resource consents. It is likely to...

The Green Party is calling on the National Government to introduce sector-wide deposit insurance following Kiwibank’s withdrawal of its deposit guarantee. Kiwibank announced to its customers yesterday that its deposit guarantee on savers’ money was ending on 28 February 2017. After February, no bank in New Zealand will offer protection of savers’ deposits. “New Zealand is the only country left in the developed world that doesn’t offer savers’ deposit insurance to protect them against possible loss if their bank ever...

Minister of Education Hekia Parata would have known about seclusion rooms for more than a year and did nothing to stop their use until she was publicly shamed into doing so, the Green Party said today. The Minister has today proposed to prohibit seclusion in schools and early childhood education services. “It’s a bit rich for Hekia Parata to now claim credit for making seclusion rooms illegal, when she could have taken this action more than a year ago when...

A petition from Life Matters Suicide Prevention Trust presented at Parliament today shows that more people are joining the call for a mental health inquiry, the Green Party said. “Who else does the Minister of Health need to hear from to convince him that a nationwide mental health inquiry is desperately needed?” Green Party health spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said today. “Time and time again, we have heard about the failings in our mental health system and why an inquiry...

2 November 2016   The National Government must stop relying on dodgy accounting loopholes in order to continue avoiding responsibility for real reductions in New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions, the Green Party said today. Under its Paris Agreement obligations, the National Government plans to change the way it accounts for greenhouse gas emissions in 2020. But a new report released today by the Morgan Foundation reveals that the timing of this change means the Government will avoid liability for a huge...

An increase in the number of unnatural deaths and self-harm incidents in prisons are further evidence of failings in our health and justice systems, and show the urgent need for a mental health enquiry, the Green Party said today. Corrections data for 2015/16 shows there were 11 unnatural deaths in custody, as many as the two previous years combined, and 26 self-harm threat-to-life incidents, six times as many as in 2014/15. Suicide is the most common form of unnatural deaths...