New data shows rising rents are hitting people on modest incomes and beneficiaries in the pocket, while the cost of living for wealthier households is more manageable, the Green Party said today. In the last three months, the cost of living rose 1.4 percent for beneficiaries and 1.3 percent for low expenditure households, compared to just 0.5 percent for high expenditure households, according to the Statistics NZ Household Living Costs Price Index. “Under National, it’s getting harder for people on...

Mental health services have been in such a dire state for such a long time that only a full inquiry and a significant injection of Government money will make a difference, the Green Party said today. The Health Minister today announced that mental health services will get a cross-Government approach, mainly funded within existing baseline funding. “Families of people experiencing mental health problems are being short-changed by a Government that has been missing in action for far too long,” Green...

Conservation Minister Maggie Barry will have to go against the will of the New Zealand public if she pushes ahead with more open-cast coal mining on conservation land on the West Coast, the Green Party said today. It has been revealed that the Government is planning to open up areas of the West Coast’s Buller Plateau for open-cast and underground coal mining, home to kiwi, geckos, and other rare plants and animals. “It looks like Maggie Barry herself is at...

The National Government’s water standards are a murky mess that won’t protect our rivers, lakes and aquifers, the Green Party said today. The comments comes on the back of news this morning that the Government hasn’t released information to scientists clarifying how the standards will improve water quality. “If even our freshwater scientists aren’t being given the full picture of how the so-called Clean Water package actually makes our water cleaner, how are the public meant to know?” said Green...

It’s time for a moratorium on new dairy farms and to start thinking about how to reduce the number of cows on our paddocks to halt water pollution, the Green Party said today. “Even Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy has admitted that there’s no room for more cows because of the impact they have on our rivers, lakes and aquifers,” said Green Party primary industries spokesperson Eugenie Sage. “The Government has all the reports it needs to show the...

Increased infrastructure spending must focus on the best ways to fix the housing and transport problems in Auckland, not just a few more expensive and ineffective highways, the Green Party said today. “The most serious infrastructure problems Auckland faces are in transport and housing, and National has spent the last nine years showing that they have no idea how to fix either of them,” Green Party Auckland Issues spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said. “The full trains and overflowing buses every...

The Green Party’s Māori Caucus is excited to be launching a national outreach tour to engage with Māori communities, kicking off in Northland today.

Present and future generations are suffering the consequences of National’s weak moves to prevent pollution from entering our rivers, lakes and aquifers, the Green Party said today. The comments follow the publication of Our Freshwater 2017, a report by Statistics NZ and the Ministry for the Environment, which shows how Aotearoa New Zealand’s water and the species that depend on it are affected by urban, pastoral and industrial pollution. “Water quality in rivers in farmed areas is declining fast, but...

A new report highlighting the causes of the runaway growth in the prison population released today is further proof we need a cross-party consensus on justice issues, the Green Party said today. JustSpeak’s new report ‘Bailing out the Justice System’ shows that new laws introduced in 2013 reversed the longstanding decline in prison numbers and forced the Government to spend a billion dollars on a new prison. “This report makes clear that morally and economically, we can’t afford to keep...

The ‘secure care’ that children are experiencing whilst in Oranga Tamariki custody is barbaric and must stop immediately, the Green Party said today. The widespread use of seclusion and restraint practices on children, mentally ill people, and other adults across New Zealand’s detention facilities is highlighted in a United Nations-funded report released today, ordered by the Human Rights Commission. Over the six months that the report looked into, 20 children aged between 11 and 15 in Care and Protection residences...