Farmers and rural communities are wearing the cost of the National Government and Fonterra’s strategy of unlimited growth in milk supply, the Green Party said today. “Fonterra’s announcement today that its forecast farmgate milk price has fallen to $3.85/kg of milk solids will put dairy farmers under even more pressure, will increase farm debt, wipe billions off the rural economy and hit communities hard,” said Green Party primary industries spokesperson Eugenie Sage. “The National Government and Fonterra’s preoccupation with growth...

Record low global dairy prices mean the Government needs to start coming up with new ideas, the Green Party said. “We urgently need to start looking at alternatives to dairy and new ways of adding value to our exports, or else farmers and the whole economy will continue to feel the squeeze from low global dairy prices,” Green Party primary industries spokesperson Eugenie Sage said. “We cannot continue doing more of the same. We need to be adding value not...

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...

News that Fonterra will axe 523 jobs shows that the human effects of the tumbling global dairy price are being felt throughout New Zealand, the Green Party said today. “These job cuts are a tragedy for the 523 staff and their families, who will now be joining rural workers and indebted farmers in financial insecurity,” Green Party primary industries spokesperson Eugenie Sage said. “Ultimately, these workers are bearing the cost of the National Government putting all its bottles in the...

Plummeting global dairy prices overnight show why the Government needs to invest in adding value not volume to the dairy sector, the Green Party said today. “Just doing more of the same – expanding stock numbers and raw commodity exports – leaves the rural economy open to the risks of continuing low global dairy prices,” Green Party primary industries spokesperson Eugenie Sage said. “National’s economic strategy bets the farm on high international dairy prices rather than building a diversified, R&D...

Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy has been forced to back track on his statements that everything was fine and dandy with the export of swamp kauri, the Green Party said today. Mr Guy has announced a range of measures to tighten up the extraction and export of ancient swamp kauri from wetlands in Northland, which he formerly assured New Zealanders was managed “very, very closely”. “Pressure from the Green Party and environmental groups has forced Mr Guy to bring...

The Government needs to trust the people of Canterbury and return a fully elected, democratic regional council in Canterbury immediately, the Green Party said today. In today’s announcement about the regional council’s future the National Government failed to restore democracy and a fully elected Environment Canterbury Regional Council (ECan). It once again postponed the return of a fully elected council, this time until 2019.

The rebuild of Christchurch offers a unique opportunity to plan for more extreme weather events, and for rising sea levels caused by climate change,” Green Party Christchurch spokesperson Eugenie Sage said today.  Nearly 6000 properties in Christchurch and Banks Peninsula could be under threat from coastal erosion over the next century, a new report suggests.

The Government is still intent on trying to control Christchurch’s future from the Beehive, Green Party Christchurch spokesperson Eugenie Sage said today. The Green Party today responded to the announcement of new power structures for Canterbury’s recovery from the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. 

Unless the Government reviews its processes for valuing high country pastoral lease land, it will continue to give away millions of dollars to private interests that should be going to the New Zealand public, the Green Party said today. This follows analysis from Lincoln University researchers showing that farmers are making huge profits from on-selling Crown land that is sold to them under the tenure review process - land that they had previously leased from the Crown. Green Party conservation...