Finance Minister Bill English’s suggestion that poor families in New Zealand are better off than those in other developed countries shows how disconnected he is from the reality in his own country, the Green Party said today. “Bill English’s comments show he’s in denial about what we’re actually seeing in our communities, which is food banks with empty shelves and more people begging on the streets,” Green Party social development spokesperson Jan Logie said. “When people are working hard and...

Revelations that Lifeline Aotearoa has only enough money to run for one more year are another blow to our already strained mental health system, the Green Party said today. Lifeline Aotearoa provides free 24/7 mental health assistance through phone lines 0800 Lifeline, 0508 Tautoko (specialised suicide crisis line), and 0800 Kidsline (for those aged under 18). “A strained mental health system has already been palming people off onto these 0800 numbers, and if Lifeline services go under, then New Zealanders...

The Government needs to come clean with Cantabrians, and provide a detailed financial breakdown of the true cost of the proposed Christchurch convention centre, the Green Party said today.

The National Government is failing to report properly on the extent and seriousness of New Zealand’s environmental problems, and is instead hiding behind misleading statistics, the Green Party said today. A report the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE), responding to the Government’s own State of the Environment report released last October, criticises the Government for not providing New Zealanders with "information about how good or bad aspects of the environment are in different parts of the country", focusing on...

The Health Minister needs to urgently undertake an inquiry into mental health services, after new figures have revealed that young people are facing unreasonably long waiting times to receive the help they need, the Green Party said today. Thirty percent of young people who seek help for mental health issues have to wait longer than three weeks to see a mental health provider, and of those, 1337 young people had to wait longer than eight weeks in 2015/2016. The figures,...

The Green Party is again calling on ACC not to throw good money after bad by investing public money in the hugely controversial Ruataniwha Dam, which will be a disaster for the Hawke’s Bay environment. Local community groups, supported by Greenpeace, are protesting the Ruataniwha dam today highlighting the massive environmental destruction the proposed dam will have on the Makaroro,Waipawa, and Tukituki rivers. The $333 million dam has so far failed to secure any private investment and could end up...

The review of the Search and Surveillance Act should be focused on strengthening Kiwis’ rights, not extending dodgy surveillance powers, the Green Party said today. This afternoon National announced the terms for the mandatory review of the Search and Surveillance Act by the Ministry of Justice and the Law Commission, which will report back to the Government on whether the law is fit for purpose. The Act gave Police and a laundry list of other agencies power to covertly record...

New data showing that the top 10 percent of New Zealand households own half our country’s wealth, while the bottom 40 percent of households own just 3 percent of the wealth, helps explain why so many people are living in cars and being forced to choose between putting food on their table or seeing a doctor when they’re sick, the Green Party said today. The data is from Statistics NZ’s Household Net Worth survey. “When wealth inequality is this stark,...

Parliament must listen to the thousands of people who have signed a Council of Trade Unions (CTU) petition calling for Easter Sunday to remain one of the few days people are guaranteed leave to spend time with their families, the Green Party said today. Green Party workplace relations spokesperson Denise Roche will table a CTU petition calling for the National Government’s support partners to protect the time New Zealanders get off work, when the Shop Trading Hours Amendment Bill is...

The Shewan inquiry has found that foreign trusts are open to being abused and has recommended new disclosure requirements in line with what the Green Party has been pushing for since 2012, the Green Party said today. The Government Inquiry into Foreign Trust Disclosure Rules found today that existing foreign trust disclosure rules are inadequate and has recommended a significant increase in the information required for disclosure at set-up and on a yearly basis. “The Shewan inquiry into foreign trusts...