A joint investigation into aged care has revealed serious concerns with the quality of aged-care facilities and access to home care services across the country, the Green Party and Labour said today. Labour and the Green Party have joined with Grey Power to investigate aged care in New Zealand, revisiting the 2010 review which saw 20 nationwide meetings with over 1200 people involved. The current tour has already visited Rotorua, Golden Bay, Nelson and Levin, and will continue in Kelston,...

A capital gains tax on property speculators is urgently needed to rebalance the housing market, as the median nationwide house price rose to over half a million dollars today, the Green Party said. “New Zealand under National has become a housing speculator’s paradise, and normal working families are paying the price,” said Green Party Co-leader James Shaw. “A capital gains tax (excluding the family home) has to be at the centre of any plan to fix the housing crisis. It’s...

Support for Green MP Steffan Browning’s member’s bill is a win for the vast majority of New Zealanders who want to know where the food they buy is produced, the Green Party said today.

The Government’s weak strategy for cleaning up fresh water won’t undo years of abuse, unless we change our farming model, and take a hard long look at how we develop land in this country, the Green Party said today. The comments come on the back of a report by the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor Sir Peter Gluckman, which found that some waterways are beyond tipping point and others will take decades to recover. “When even National’s science advisor is...

The Green Party’s Home for Life Policy is a way to achieve the social and economic gains of getting people into their own homes, outlined in a new report by the New Zealand Housing Foundation and BERL Economic Research released today. Green Party policy would see thousands of families buy their own affordable home through a progressive ownership rent-to-buy programme. “Home ownership is out of reach for too many working families, and it’s time to turn that around with a...

Radical changes to the school funding system have not been thought through and will ultimately mean less funding for schools, the Green Party said today. The Government has announced that the school decile system will be scrapped and replaced by a new predictive index which targets individual children at risk. “What this will ultimately mean in the long run is less money for schools who are working with communities with fewer resources”, said Green Party education spokesperson Catherine Delahunty. “The...

Today’s report from the Waitangi Tribunal is a wake-up call about National’s failure to tackle Māori overrepresentation in the justice system, the Green Party said today. The Tribunal found the Department of Corrections in breach of the Treaty principles of equity and active protection because of an insufficient focus on Māori  reoffending, and has recommended urgent reforms. “What we are seeing is more evidence of a Government which is content with doing the bare minimum. Today’s findings from the Tribunal should...

Today’s report from the Waitangi Tribunal is a wake-up call about National’s failure to tackle Māori overrepresentation in the justice system, the Green Party said today. The Tribunal found the Department of Corrections in breach of the Treaty principles of equity and active protection because of an insufficient focus on Māori  reoffending, and has recommended urgent reforms. “What we are seeing is more evidence of a Government which is content with doing the bare minimum. Today’s findings from the Tribunal should...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/91311264/naenae-church-demands-government-action-on-vacant-housing-nz-land

The Green Party has criticised the United States for acting unilaterally in its cruise missile attack on Shayrat airfield in Syria. That attack was launched following the reported use of chemical weapons against civilians in a town in northern Syria several days ago. “This hasty military action by the US, without consultation with other major powers, threatens global security,” said Green global affairs spokesperson Kennedy Graham. “We expect and deserve cooler heads than this from our global leaders. No wrong...