News

  • Government won’t act to protect Kiwi kids from pesticide residues in food

    The Government must show it’s on the side of New Zealand babies and toddlers and their parents, rather than big-business food companies, and put in place better testing and regulation of pesticide residue levels in children’s food, the Green Party said today. The Green Party’s call comes in the wake of a Primary Production Select Committee report into allegations that there are unacceptably high levels of pesticides in baby food sold in New Zealand, and a demand for regulations in...
  • Norway moves first to dump coal investments

    The Green Party today called on the Government to secure cross-party support to sell its investments in coal mining companies. The Norwegian Parliament’s finance committee agreed in a bipartisan motion yesterday to instruct the $1.2 trillion Government Pension Fund to sell its stakes in companies that generate more than 30 percent of their output or revenues from coal-related activities. “Coal has no future in our economy if we want a future free of runaway climate change,” said Green Party Co-leader...
  • Judith Collins puts workers’ lives at risk

    Judith Collins’ backbench machinations in “her” caucus are putting workers’ lives at risk, the Green Party said. “National’s backdown on health and safety legislation shows that the Government is putting the interests of business owners in the forestry, agriculture, and fisheries industries ahead of workers’ safety on the job,” Green Party industrial relations spokesperson Denise Roche said. “Judith Collins’ successful backbench manoeuvring to delay and weaken vital workplace health and safety legislation shows that cracks are appearing in the National...
  • Dairy price drop means Landcorp must stop dairy conversions

    Today’s cut to Fonterra’s forecast farmgate milk price means that government-owned Landcorp must stop converting forests to dairy farms or risk doing serious damage to the rural economy, the Green Party said. “Landcorp needs to stop the dairy conversions until they can show how undertaking more conversions stacks up economically in the face of the lower forecast milk price. All the information that we’ve seen so far suggests that, in fact, dairy conversions may be hurting other farmers financially,” Green...
  • PPP for Holiday Highway will double cost to taxpayer

    The use of private sector finance to build the Pūhoi-Warkworth motorway will make an already uneconomic project more expensive, the Green Party said today. The National Government today announced it was putting the financing and construction of the Pūhoi-Warkworth motorway out to tender as a public-private partnership (PPP). “Building the Puhoi-Warkworth motorway sooner doesn't stop it being an unwise use of money,” said Green Party transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter. “Borrowing from the private sector to finance the earlier construction...
  • Govt leaves Maori and domestic violence victims stranded by Relationship Aotearoa closure

    The Government’s closure of Relationships Aotearoa creates a worrying gap in the provision of specialist counselling services to Maori and domestic violence victims and perpetrators, the Green Party said today. “By shutting down Relationships Aotearoa, the Government is shutting down years of highly specialised knowledge and experience, which has made a real and positive difference to thousands of New Zealanders,” said Green Party women’s issues spokesperson Jan Logie.  “Relationships Aotearoa was New Zealand’s largest provider of counselling ­­– a national,...
  • Maui’s dolphin numbers fall

    It’s time for the Government to pull out all the stops to protect Maui’s dolphin in the wake of news that estimated numbers have fallen to between 43 and 47 individuals, said the Green Party today. Research from NABU International shows that the world’s smallest and rarest dolphin has only 10-12 mature females left, and could be extinct by 2029. It was previously thought that there were 55 individuals remaining. “We either do everything we can to save these unique...
  • Echoes of GFC with huge trade deficit

    New Zealand is now experiencing the worst annual trade deficit since the height of the global financial crisis because the National Government has failed to diversify the economy away from dairy and oil, the Green Party said. “The $2.6 billion trade deficit for the year ended April 2015 is the largest since June 2009 when the global economy was deep in crisis,” Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman said. “National has failed to put in place an economic strategy to...