Budget figures for the first quarter of the financial year released today by Treasury show the Government’s goal of achieving a budget surplus is looking doubtful, the Green Party said today. “National has staked its credibility on achieving a budget surplus this year, but even that limited goal is looking increasingly dubious,” Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman said today. Treasury said today the operating budget deficit for the first three months of the financial year was $725 million, $79...

Basic human rights of New Zealanders are taking a backseat under the National Government’s proposed new spy laws, the Green Party said today.

Big electricity companies are using their power to make it harder for families and businesses wanting to go solar and the National Government is doing nothing to help them, the Green Party said today. Meridian Energy announced today a 60-72 percent cut in the rate it buys excess solar from homes and businesses. Meridian’s current buy-back rates are 25 cents for the first 5 kWh per day and 10 cents thereafter. The new rates will be 7 cents/kWh in summer...

Workers’ pay packets continue to go backwards in real terms under National’s ‘rock star’ economy, the Green Party said today. Statistics New Zealand today released the September quarter Labour Cost Index (LCI) which showed ordinary time wages and salaries have risen 10.5 percent since the September 2008 quarter, below inflation of 11.1 percent over the same period. Statistics New Zealand says the LCI is the best measure of earnings. “It shows, despite the Christchurch rebuild and historically high commodity prices...

The Green Party has written to Prime Minister John Key urging him to vote for the Feed the Kids Bill if it comes before Parliament tomorrow, to allow MPs to debate how best to feed hungry children at school.

National’s plan to sell state houses and provide income-related rent subsidies to private landlords will drive up rents and house prices for everyone and is economically reckless, the Green Party said today. “Shifting the responsibility for housing from the Government to the private sector looks like a cynical attempt to enrich landlords while palming off responsibility for housing the vulnerable,” Green Party housing spokesperson Kevin Hague said. “National’s plan swaps our state homes for massive state subsidies to private landlords....

A major climate report released overnight by the United Nations on climate change is an urgent call to action, the Green Party said today.   The report brings together the recent round of UN reports that summarise where climate science has got to. The report states that without additional action we are on track for “severe, widespread, and irreversible impacts globally.”

Information contained in a new chapter of the book Key: Portrait of a Prime Minister, that Jason Ede stopped working for the National Party on the night the book Dirty Politics was released, shows Mr Key and senior ministers hid crucial facts from the public during the election campaign, says the Green Party. “All through the campaign John Key misled New Zealanders by pretending that Jason Ede was still working for the National Party, when in fact he had stopped...

A small part of the $850 million record profit posted by the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) today needs to be set aside to protect savers’ deposits in the future, said Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman today. Dr Norman was responding to the full-year profits posted by the BNZ, which announced a 22 percent increase in after-tax profits today to $850 million. New Zealand remains the only country in the OECD that has no deposit insurance to protect savers'...

The Reserve Bank’s U-turn on interest rates today shows monetary policy settings were wrong and New Zealanders have suffered unnecessarily through the loss of jobs and having to pay higher interest rates, the Green Party said today. Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler today left the Official Cash Rate (OCR) unchanged at 3.5 percent but replaced previous wording about further rate hikes being necessary with the comment that “a period of assessment remains appropriate before considering further policy adjustment”. “Unfortunately the...