News

  • Kids need help now, Prime Minister

    Children in poverty can’t wait for the Budget to bring them enough food, or shoes -  they need urgent Government action in the wake of evidence that one in six kids are going without the basics, the Green Party says. In their latest book, The Child Poverty Debate, Professors Jonathan Boston and Simon Chapple contrast the country’s focus on the needs of older New Zealanders with the poverty crisis facing children, and say one in six kids are suffering from...
  • If kauri trees are to be axed today, what will gutting the RMA bring tomorrow?

    The removal of protection for urban trees by the Government is threatening a 500-year-old kauri tree, and is just the thin end of the wedge if the Government is to gut the Resource Management Act (RMA) further, the Green Party said today. “When it’s ok for one of our oldest and most treasured trees to be chopped down to maximise profit, and allowed under the latest changes to the RMA, there’s something very wrong here. Environmental protection in our legislation...
  • Clearer picture needed on air quality to safeguard our health

    The Government needs to beef up the monitoring of a harmful airborne particle in order to protect New Zealanders’ health, the Green Party said today. The call follows today’s release of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s "The State of Air Quality in New Zealand" report. Among recommendations made by Commissioner Dr Jan Wright was a call for the Ministry for the Environment to include monitoring and reporting of the potentially fatal airborne particle PM2.5. Main sources of PM2.5 in...
  • Broader focus needed for Canterbury air plan to safeguard our health

    Environment Canterbury (ECan) needs to revise the proposed Canterbury regional air plan and beef up its monitoring and controls on harmful airborne particles to protect the health of Christchurch and Timaru residents, the Green Party said today. The call follows today’s release of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s  report on "The State of Air Quality in New Zealand". Among recommendations made by Commissioner Dr Jan Wright was a call for the Ministry for the Environment to include monitoring and...
  • Time for PM to come clean on Pacific spying

    John Key must come clean and tell New Zealanders whether the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) has illegally spied on them during mass information gathering on behalf of the United States of America, said the Green Party today.