The Green Party is demanding to know why SERCO’s contract has not been terminated yet despite at least six Performance Notices in the last three years.

Workers have been let down by the National Government’s new Health and Safety Reform Bill which in many ways is worse than what it replaces, the Green Party said following the release of the Select Committee Report into the bill today. “The review of health and safety laws was supposed to make workplaces safer for workers, but it looks like it’ll actually do the opposite,” Green Party workplace relations spokesperson Denise Roche said. “National seems to have given in to...

Fresh revelations of violence and injuries at Mt Eden Prison should prompt the Government to consider cancelling SERCO's contract to run the prison, the Green Party says. “It's time for the Corrections Minister to stop protecting SERCO and the Corrections Department and do what's right to ensure the proper management of the prison,” Green Party justice spokesperson Dave Clendon said. “Today the Minister confirmed SERCO had been fined for multiple breaches of its contract. One man has died as a...

The Government should not renew SERCO’s contract to run Mt Eden Prison, following confirmation from the Corrections Minister today that SERCO has been fined $300,000 for a myriad of failures in the last financial year.

The Green Party is calling on the Government to permanently ditch its plans for an ACC appeals tribunal and act immediately to ensure ACC has fairer and more just processes. The call comes after the release of research by the University of Otago Legal Issues Centre and  Acclaim Otago which highlights ''widespread and systemic barriers to access to justice'' when it comes to ACC. “The Government is doing nowhere near enough to address New Zealanders’ legitimate concerns about the way...

The cooling New Zealand economy has prompted the Reserve Bank to continue its stimulatory stance by dropping the OCR further, in the absence of any long term plan for economic resilience from National, the Green Party said. “With the economy slowing down rapidly, prompting the Reserve Bank to drop the OCR, National’s failure to put in place long-term measures to ensure continued productive investment and job creation has been exposed,” said Green Party Co-leader James Shaw. “Lower interest rates will...

  Prime Minister John Key’s comment that he “believes” low income New Zealanders could one day buy a home is an insult to Kiwis who have been priced out of the market by Government inaction on housing, the Green Party says. John Key and Bill English were reported today to have conceded that rising house prices were contributing to inequality, but neither were prepared to take any responsibility for the fact. “To admit that the housing crisis in Auckland is...

The Government should review benefit levels, following official advice showing that a family of four on welfare is likely to have $72 less per week than what they need to provide for the core essential items, the Green Party says. Advice provided by the Prime Minister’s department for the Budget 2015 included a budget breakdown for a family with two children on a benefit showing that they were $72 in the red each week without even paying for some basic...

The National Government ought to listen to the public and raise the ambition of its climate change target, the Green Party said today.

Communities are saying no to genetically engineered (GE) trees and pushing back against the National Government’s attempt to remove the right of councils from controlling the release of GE trees in their regions, the Green Party said today. At public meetings held around the country to consult on the proposed National Environmental Standard for Plantation Forestry, which will replace existing plan rules for many plantation forestry activities, attendees have voiced concerns over allowing the planting of GE trees to be...