News

  • Urgent action needed on family and sexual violence

    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 delay in Māori Language week an embarrassment

    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...
  • Even the lawyers say stock numbers should come down

    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...
  • Reserve Bank’s failings hurting businesses and households

    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...
  • Sick New Zealanders will pay under John Key’s TPPA

    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...
  • Privatising environmental decisions will cost the environment and the public

    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...
  • Environment at risk as GE advocate chosen to head the EPA

    An ardent advocate of genetic engineering (GE) should not be heading the body charged with protecting the environment, the Green Party said today. Former CEO of Wrightson Dr Allan Freeth has been appointed to head the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), and will take up the post in September. During his time at Wrightson, Dr Freeth was instrumental in pushing their adoption of GE grasses, and saw Wrightson buy into biotech company Genesis to work on GE pasture plants and GE...
  • Compromised charter board should go

    The Green Party is calling on the Government to cancel its latest charter school application round, and disestablish the Partnership Schools/Kura Hourua Authorisation (PSKH) board, following the bail out of a problem-plagued Northland charter school. “Both the Education Minister and the PSKH board have put their desire to open charter schools ahead of the safety of the children in them, ignoring repeated warnings by the Ministry of Education that some schools were not ready to be opened,” Green Party education spokesperson...