News

  • Negligent Govt must fix the 20,000 state houses that remain uninsulated

    The Green Party is calling for the Government to immediately insulate and fix the 30 percent of state homes that it has neglected to insulate so far, despite promising to do so. “Every New Zealand child deserves to live in a warm, healthy home. We cannot have another case like Emma-Lita Bourne – it’s an absolute disgrace that this is happening in 21st century New Zealand,” said Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei. “We know this Government has been a negligent...
  • Dunedin flooding highlights costs of Govt’s inaction on climate

    Local governments throughout New Zealand will have to pick up the ongoing cost of National’s inaction on climate change, the Green Party said today. “The flooding in Dunedin highlights that the National Government needs to stop being the problem and start being part of the solution on climate change,” Green Party local government spokesperson Eugenie Sage said. “Since National came to power in 2008, New Zealand’s net emissions have increased by 13 percent; the scientific consensus is that increasing emissions...
  • Toddler’s death shows Govt must urgently introduce housing WoF

    The Government must introduce a Warrant of Fitness for all houses in New Zealand, starting with state houses, following the release of a coroner’s report which linked the death of an Auckland toddler to the living conditions in her family’s Housing New Zealand home, the Green Party said today. “A Housing Warrant of Fitness needs to be urgently introduced by the Government. This young girl’s tragic death shows what can happen if we continue to do nothing about the cold,...
  • Key proved wrong on cost of climate action

    The Government’s own economic modelling has proved John Key wrong about the cost of reducing New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions, the Green Party said today following an exchange between the Prime Minister and new Green Party Co-leader James Shaw in Parliament. “It would only cost one tenth of one percent of GDP growth annually to reduce New Zealand’s emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, compared to doing nothing, according to the Government’s own economic modelling,” Green Party Co-leader...
  • Govt must stop demanding schools report on National Standards

    The Education Minister must stop demanding schools report on National Standards and immediately stop collecting data for league tables following evidence that the standards are completely unreliable, the Green Party says. The Ministry of Education’s latest review of National Standards results today found that the basis of National Standards reporting – the Overall Teacher Judgments (OTJ) made about the level children were performing at – ‘‘strongly suggest the OTJ’s  lack dependability,” and it found that less than half of National...
  • Are our spy agencies stopping asylum seekers

    Prime Minister John Key needs to confirm if our spy agencies were involved in snooping on asylum seekers and potentially breaching our international human rights obligations, Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said today.
  • Mentally ill NZers are not a cash cow for National's mates

    The Government’s plan to allow foreign banks and big money investors to profit off mentally ill New Zealanders is a part of an ongoing plan to privatise public services, that will see more vulnerable Kiwis hurt, the Green Party says today. In the House today, Health Minister Jonathan Coleman refused to rule out the possibility of social service providers being driven to the wall by new social investment bonds that see organisations denied payment for not meeting the Government’s targets...
  • Spy review panel needs to look at NSA roll back

    The intelligence and security review panel needs to look overseas and realise that unbridled power for spy agencies to undertake mass spying is no longer acceptable, and ensure that New Zealanders do not have less privacy protections than American citizens, said the Green Party today