News

  • NZ an easy mark for overseas property speculators

    Revelations that New Zealand is being marketed in Malaysia and other parts of Asia as an easy place to make a quick property buck show why we desperately need restrictions on non-resident foreign buyers in our overheated market, the Green Party said today. “These cashed-up non-resident buyers must think New Zealand and the National Government are easy marks,” said Green Party housing spokesperson Kevin Hague. “They can come here, score a bunch of properties, pay no capital gains tax and...
  • Time for a plastic bag-free NZ

      The Green Party has launched a campaign to create a plastic-bag free New Zealand and is calling on the Government to legislate to phase plastic bags out.
  • Govt breaks free doctors visit promise to kids

    The Government has already broken a key election promise by reneging on a pledge to make all doctors’ visits for under 13 year olds free, the Green Party says. Documents obtained by the Green Party show that the Government decided to fund only 90 percent of doctors’ visits for children suffering from an injury in an attempt trim the cost of the so-called “free” visits. “This makes a lie of the promise to provide free doctors’ visits for all children...
  • Common Sense Plan good start to keeping Christchurch’s assets

    Any measures to stop the sale of Christchurch’s assets, including the proposed Common Sense Plan, should be carefully considered by the Christchurch City Council, the Green Party said today. “Christchurch residents have been telling us that they absolutely do not want asset sales,” said Green Party Christchurch spokesperson Eugenie Sage. “They recognise asset sales for what they really are – short-term, stop-gap thinking – and know they will do little to secure Christchurch’s long-term financial future. “There is a groundswell...
  • National’s housing crisis now main obstacle to interest rate cut

    Today’s record low inflation figure of 0.1 percent for the year to March 2015, well below the Reserve Bank’s target band, gives the Bank scope to cut the Official Cash Rate later this month but it is unlikely to given National’s failure to address Auckland’s housing crisis, the Green Party said. A lower Official Cash Rate (OCR) would likely to lead to lower domestic interest rates which would lower the costs of borrowing to help businesses, exporters, and those with...
  • Govt should drop ECE targets amid quality concern

    The Government must drop its early childhood attendance targets as evidence mounts that they could be doing more harm to children than good, the Green Party says. Reports today show that thousands of children might be at risk in low quality ECE services as the Government is recruiting Maori, Pacific and low income children for enrolment in order to bolster its 98 % attendance targets. “The Government is putting its targets ahead of the safety of children,” Green Party education...
  • Key recklessly, pointlessly, damages China relationship

    Evidence that the Key Government recklessly approved a GCSB spying operation to intercept Chinese diplomatic communications between offices in Auckland will pointlessly damage our relationship with China, the Green Party said today. The latest Snowden documents detail plans by the New Zealand spy agency, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), to tap Chinese diplomatic communications between their two consular offices in Auckland. The papers don’t reveal if the operation, a joint project with the US National Security Agency (NSA), went...