Proposed changes to Child, Youth and Family Services (CYFS) look promising, but should not overshadow that there is still an urgent funding crisis in CYFS, the Green Party said today. “There are children who need the urgent support of CYFS today, and they matter,” Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said. “There aren’t enough social workers, they don’t have enough time, the carers need support, and families are waiting. “Low income, poor housing and barriers to education also exacerbate the need...

The Government’s plan to sell Kiwibank to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and ACC Fund for $495 million could end up costing taxpayers between $800 million and $1.1 billion to buy back, the Green Party said today. Analysis done by the Parliamentary Library using two different valuation methods comes up with a cost to buy back Kiwibank in five years’ time at $800 million to $1.1 billion dollars. “The sale of Kiwibank could end up being extremely costly for taxpayers....

A lack of commitment to the organic farming sector from the National Government is causing New Zealand to fall behind our major agricultural competitors in the race to compete for the high-value organic dollar, the Green Party said today. The 2016 New Zealand Organic Market Report, released today, shows there has been a 55 percent decline in the area of New Zealand farmland producing organic livestock in 2015. At the same time, organic farmland in both Australia and the EU...

The Green Party is calling on the Government to end the use of cruel colony cages for chickens, following revelations on TV3’s Story tonight that shows hens in horrific conditions in such cages, including a dead hen trapped under a perch and hens in a distressed state.

The National Government’s failure to invest in Kiwibank has today forced Kiwibank’s owner New Zealand Post to take a step down the road to privatisation of the bank, the Green Party said. “If National had injected capital into Kiwibank, to allow Kiwibank to expand like it should have years ago, we wouldn’t be looking at a possible future privatisation,” Green Party Co-leader James Shaw said. “Bill English says he’ll buy the Kiwibank shares back if he has to in five...

John Key’s claim that the full details of foreign trusts can be revealed is contradicted by his own Minister of Revenue who, in 2012, said IRD could only investigate dodgy trusts if it had the name of the trust it was investigating, the Green Party says. In 2012, the Green Party asked then Minister of Revenue, Peter Dunne, what specific information overseas tax officials needed to know about New Zealand foreign trusts before they could receive further information on them...

The Green Party will today seek the leave of Parliament to introduce a Member’s Bill that would end the secrecy around foreign trusts in New Zealand, by imposing a registration and disclosure scheme on foreign trusts. The Income Tax (Foreign Trusts Registration and Disclosure) Amendment Bill would increase transparency by requiring trustees to disclose full information about the settlors, trustees, and beneficiaries of a trust. The IRD would publish this information in an online register. “Given the immediate risks to...

The Green Party supports Helen Clark’s bid for Secretary General of the United Nations.

The Government must stop allowing the foreign trust industry to operate in secret here to prevent New Zealand becoming a tax haven for criminals, the Green Party said today. New Zealand foreign trusts have again been implicated in money laundering, tax avoidance, and criminal activity following a massive document leak from a Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. The documents reportedly show that New Zealand is being used by overseas investors to keep tax secrets. “New Zealand is today being described...

“John Key’s got it wrong. The whole point of our policy is to strengthen Kiwibank to be a better commercial bank, not weaken it by encouraging non-commercial behaviour,” Green Party Co-leader James Shaw said. “John Key is being deliberately alarmist and making things up because he doesn’t have his own plan for improving banking for Kiwis. “The evidence from Kiwibank’s first few years shows how wrong John Key is. Back then, capital injections and lower dividends helped Kiwibank compete commercially...