The Green Party is calling on the Government to immediately cancel all the fake emission reduction units it owns and admit it cheated in order to meet its global commitments to cut climate pollution.. Today the Morgan Foundation alleged in the Listener Magazine that the Government allowed ‘fraudulent’ emission reduction units from the Ukraine and Russia to be used so New Zealand could meet its 2020 climate target on the cheap. ‘Emission reduction units’ allow New Zealand polluters to pay...

Green MP Catherine Delahunty joined Ashburton locals today calling on the Ashburton District Council to stop the sale of land including a resource consent to extract 40 billion litres of artesian water for a water bottling plant. The plant will bottle pure, fresh artesian water from an aquifer near Ashburton, while many rural Cantabrians have to drink water from bores that are so polluted, their unborn and formula-fed babies are at risk from blue baby syndrome. “A water bottling plant...

A new report shows the Government has failed to improve New Zealand’s shocking rate of inequality in the seven years its been in power and when it comes to education it has made the outcomes for poorer kids worse, the Green Party says. UNICEF’S Fairness for Children: A league table of inequality in child wellbeing in rich countries report shows that kids in the poorest ten percent of families received nearly 50 percent less income each week than the average...

A report launched today showing that Māori babies make up more than 60 percent of all cot deaths in New Zealand is another signal that Government agencies are not doing enough to help keep our tamariki safe, the Green Party said today.

New analysis showing median house prices in Auckland are now 9.22 times the median annual household income confirms that the National Government has failed to fix the Auckland housing crisis, the Green Party said. Figures compiled by the parliamentary library using REINZ March house price data and the most recent income data available from Statistics NZ, show a median house price/income ratio in Auckland of 9.22, up from 8.45 last month. Internationally, a ratio of 3 is considered affordable. “When...

The number of jobs in the screen industry continues to decline despite National’s promise that its backroom deals with Warner Bros would secure more jobs here, the Green Party said today. Statistics New Zealand released annual data from its Screen Industry Survey today showing that the number of jobs in the industry has declined since a high in 2009 of 30,600 jobs to 25,400 in 2014, the latest year data exists for. This is the lowest level since records were...

The Green Party is calling on the location of MPs’ trusts to be added to the Register of Pecuniary and Other Specified Interests.

The Green Party is calling on the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and its investment arm HBRIC to stop pumping public money into the Ruataniwha Dam, and call the project off. The call comes on the back of news that it will cost nearly $1 billion to build the dam. “The Ruataniwha Dam would be an economic and environmental disaster,” said Green Party water spokesperson Catherine Delahunty. “Farmers are reluctant to invest in the dam, so why should local ratepayers and...

The Government has ruled out public input into the inquiry into New Zealand foreign trusts which will undermine public confidence in any of the inquiry’s findings, the Green Party said today. Finance Minister Bill English ruled out public input into the foreign trust inquiry during question time in Parliament today. “Excluding the public from an inquiry into foreign trusts will further weaken the inquiry’s credibility,” said Green Party Co-Leader James Shaw. “Without public input, inquiry head John Shewan will have...

While the White House has declared the health impacts of climate change “one of the gravest threats” to America, at least one New Zealand health board is denying evidence global warming will have any impact on human health at all, the Green Party says. A survey of District Health Boards (DHBs) by the Green Party found that almost half had incomplete or inadequate plans in place to prepare for the health effects of climate change. The Wairarapa DHB even claimed...