The Green Party is urging Wellington City Councillors to take on board Prime Minister John Key’s comments and not vote today to hold up progress on cycleways. At yesterday’s post-Cabinet press conference Mr Key said: “I think we’ve got the capacity with the government resources, and working with the council, to complete some of those cycleways in a reasonable timeframe. I don’t know why the council is slow at the moment on these particular issues given the mayor is a...

The National government needs to stop beating up on local government and develop the type of genuine partnership that Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) is promoting in its “Local Government Funding Review” discussion paper, the Green Party said today.

The urban cycling infrastructure projects announced today are not enough to prevent costly injuries to cyclists and encourage commuters and school children to cycle, the Green Party said today. Green Party transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said “The projects announced today are small steps in the right direction but the government’s own advice is that much more must be done to make cycling safer.” Documents released to the Green Party under the Official Information Act show that while the Ministry...

Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman has announced today that he will stand down as leader at the party’s Annual General Meeting in May.

The Government is vastly misrepresenting how many additional homes will be created under its so-called social housing plan, in order to make its fire-sale of state homes look better, the Green Party says. Government Ministers have claimed they’ll be able to accommodate more people in “social housing” and slash Housing New Zealand wait lists by evicting families, selling up to 2000 homes in the next year, and building an additional 1000 state houses. “There are now 1500 fewer state homes...

Prime Minister John Key’s fire-sale of state homes will line the pockets of landlords and property developers and drive up rents, while offering less security for New Zealand’s most vulnerable families, the Green Party says.   “John Key’s speech on the future of so called “social housing” today was a pie in the sky wish list of maybes, that didn’t show a coherent plan for the building of a single new home, ” Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said.  ...

The Government must ring-fence the proceeds of any state home sales and spend every dollar raised on more Government-built homes in order to address the housing crisis, the Green Party says. Prime Minister John Key has indicated that his first major speech of the year will deal with housing, after Ministers last year admitted huge numbers of state homes could be on the block and aspects of state housing transferred to charities. “John Key will never be able to house...

Students have become significantly poorer since National took office according to recently released data, the Green Party said today.

The National Government is misusing evidence provided in the Motu report on planning rules to justify gutting the environmental protections secured by the Resource Management Act (RMA), says the Green Party today. The Motu group’s research into the impacts of planning rules looked at the costs related to housing development but not the benefits of environmental protections and does not recommend significant changes to the RMA to reduce the cost of new house builds. “Environment Minister Nick Smith is misusing...

The National Government must stop using the Resource Management Act as the straw manfor its own failure to build more homes and put an end to the country’s housing crisis, the Green Party says. Today, Environment Minister Nick Smith announced the first tranche of plans to weaken the RMA saying that it was ‘crucial’ to addressing housing supply and affordability. However, property developers and planners today said the Act isn’t standing in their way. “Changing the RMA won’t build a...