Finance Minister Bill English is softening the public up for an announcement that National is going to fail in even its very limited goal of achieving a budget surplus, the Green Party said today. “No finance minister in a generation has racked up seven consecutive deficits,” Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman said today. “They have tried to paint themselves as good economic managers but National has, in just over six years, racked up $55 billion in extra debt, equivalent...

The restructuring of the Department of Conservation (DOC) following National’s severe funding cuts has been revealed as failure, the Green Party said today.

Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman congratulated Andrew Little on his election as Labour Party leader this afternoon. “Congratulations to Andrew Little and to the Labour Party for running an open and democratic leadership contest,” Dr Norman said. “We have had good working relationships with previous Labour leaders and look forward to building on this with Andrew Little. “We share common ground with Labour in a number of important policy areas. “We look forward to continuing to build a constructive...

The Government and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) should release the report into former Minister of Transport Gerry Brownlee’s airport security breach, the Green Party said today. “The actions of a Minister of Transport breaching security at an airport are a matter of high public interest,” Green Party transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said today. The CAA said that after its investigation it had required Gerry Brownlee to pay a $2000 fine while two parliamentary aides had been issued formal warning...

National’s planned cuts to research and development (R&D) funding will further undermine New Zealand’s future economic performance, the Green Party said today. A Grant Thornton International Business Report survey places New Zealand near the bottom of the table of 34 countries for forward investment in R&D. Only 12 percent of New Zealand businesses expect to increase their investment in R&D – a figure considerably less than our major trading partners China (36 percent), Australia (31 percent), the United States (27...

The G20 decision to include climate change in its communiqué despite Australia’s attempt to ignore it, increases pressure on New Zealand to come up with a credible plan to cut emissions.

Confirmation this morning by John Key that his Government plans to do nothing to turn around NZ's rapidly rising greenhouse emissions means that New Zealand joins Australia as one of the problem children at the G20 meeting in Brisbane, the Green Party said.

The Government needs to engage meaningfully with the historic decision from the Waitangi Tribunal’s inquiry into the Te Paparahi o te Raki Treaty claims, said the Green Party today.

The leaders of the Australian and New Zealand Green parties are calling on their respective governments to take action on climate change and inequality at the G20 meeting in Brisbane this weekend - topics that are absent from the agenda of the meeting of the world’s richest nations. “The two most significant issues facing the world at the moment are rapidly rising inequality and out of control climate change.  The G20 leaders have their heads in the sand when it...

New documents released to the Green Party show that Prime Minister John Key used New Zealand's intelligence services for the National Party's political ends a few days out from the 2014 election, the Green Party said today.