The Government should come clean about what concessions it has already made and what issues have been left on the TPP negotiating table, the Green Party said today. “The Government has purposefully left New Zealanders in the dark during the TPP negotiations because they know that Kiwis will baulk when they find how much we’re set to lose if it goes ahead,” said Green Party trade spokesperson Dr Russel Norman. “With the negotiations stalled, it’s an opportunity for Tim Groser...

With the lack of a formal document on climate change from New Zealand’s term as President of the Security Council, the Global Community has lost a critical opportunity to do the right thing on climate change, said the Green Party today.

This morning’s story about Lamar Aspinall contracting rheumatic fever from living in a cold, mouldy rental home is yet another reminder of why we urgently need a Government-regulated rental housing Warrant of Fitness, the Green Party said today. “Two things are very clear: firstly, this issue isn’t going away any time soon and, secondly, the Government’s half-baked measures will do nowhere near enough to stop Kiwi kids gets getting sick,” said Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei. “Kids like Lamar Aspinall,...

The Government’s stocktake of family and sexual violence spending must now be followed up by a commitment to spending the money needed to prevent the violence in the first place the Green Party said. “I’m relieved that the Government are making family and sexual violence one of their top priorities, and creating a framework for a better response,” Green Party Women’s Spokesperson Jan Logie said. “We hope this signals an end to the Government’s erosions of protections for survivors such...

Government MPs inability to make a decision today about an inquiry into Te Reo in schools is an embarrassment in Te Wiki o te Reo Māori  (Māori Language Week) the Green Party said today. The Green Party and New Zealand First are jointly calling for a Select Committee inquiry into the capacity to deliver and support Te Reo Māori within New Zealand schools. “This week, of all weeks, the Education and Science Select Committee should have supported the initiative to...

Legal advice that says Hawke’s Bay farmers might have to reduce stock numbers in order to mitigate pollution to waterways, will have implications for water allocation all over New Zealand, the Green Party said today. Earlier this year, a Board of Inquiry ruled that the proposed $80million Ruataniwha Dam in Hawke’s Bay can only go ahead if farmers taking water from the scheme keep the amount of nitrogen from their farms entering waterways below certain limits. Hawke’s Bay Regional Council...

The Green Party is calling on the Government to guarantee not one cent of the health budget will be funnelled into additional subsidies for Pharmac when it’s forced to pay more for medicines under the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

New information released by the Green Party today shows that the Reserve Bank has failed to forecast inflation accurately over the last four years meaning interest rates have been kept higher than necessary, hurting businesses and households. Analysis by the Parliamentary Library of Reserve Bank inflation forecasting versus the actual inflation rate shows that the Bank has consistently mis-forecast inflation over the last four years, resulting in a higher Official Cash Rate (OCR) than necessary to control inflation. Higher cash...

The Prime Minister’s admission today that the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will hike the cost of medicine in New Zealand is yet another reason why we need to immediately withdraw from the dead-end deal, the Green Party said today. “John Key has been pretending throughout the TPPA negotiations that the deal won’t damage our public health system, but he has finally come clean and admitted that the TPPA will mean medicines cost more in New Zealand,” said Green Party...

Forcing councils to contract out regulatory functions such as issuing resource consents is likely to cost the environment and the public, the Green Party said today. When Environment Minister Nick Smith said at this weekend's National Party conference that he could force councils to contract out regulatory functions, he seemed to have forgotten that past experiences doing this very thing has been a disaster. "We need environmental decision makers to operate in an open, transparent and democratically accountable way in...