Key questions remain unanswered about the Prime Minister’s role in his Government’s stopping an IRD review of our secretive foreign trust industry, the Green Party said today. Prime Minister John Key told National Radio this morning that his lawyer, Ken Whitney, misrepresented his exchange in an email to then Minister of Revenue Todd McClay by saying, ‘I have spoken to the Prime Minister about this and he advised that the Government has no plans to change the status of the...

The Green Party is asking the Prime Minister to tell New Zealanders why he failed to mention that his own lawyer was the person in the foreign trust industry he’d discussed foreign trusts with and referred on to the Revenue Minister. The Green Party revealed yesterday that the Prime Minister’s lawyer, Ken Whitney, wrote to the Revenue Minister in late 2014 with his concerns about an Inland Revenue Department (IRD) review of foreign trusts, claiming the Prime Minister had told...

The Government stopped the IRD from reviewing New Zealand foreign trusts shortly after the Prime Minister’s lawyer wrote to the Revenue Minister claiming John Key had promised him the regime would not be changed. Correspondence obtained by the Green Party shows that the Prime Minister’s lawyer Ken Whitney initiated a lobbying campaign that started with the Prime Minister and appears to have successfully stopped the IRD from reforming the foreign trust regulations in 2015. “This shows how powerful vested interests...

The Green Party is calling on the Government to require all public fund managers to disclose their exposure to climate risks following a report by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) highlighting the financial risks of climate change for New Zealand. The PCE, in her submission on the Emissions Trading Scheme review, said today that climate change poses a threat to New Zealand's the financial resilience and long term prosperity. Finance Minister Bill English has previously dismissed the PCE's...

The National Government must change its economic strategy if it is to have any hope of stopping climate change, the Green Party said today. The comments come following the release of a Royal Society NZ report showing wide-ranging measures must be adopted to curb climate pollution in New Zealand. “New Zealand's top scientists have shown in this report that reducing emissions will require a re-think of the current strategy for agriculture, and that climate targets won’t be met by relying...

Climate Minister Paula Bennett acknowledged this morning on TVNZ’s Q&A that the National Government had knowingly allowed business to buy carbon credits in the Ukraine and Russia that did not result in actual cuts in emissions, the Green Party said today.   This acknowledgement comes in the wake of a report by the Morgan Foundation which showed these false cuts in pollution equated to a quarter of the emissions the Government claimed to have reduced between 2008 and 2012. “Minister...

The Green Party is calling the concept of a 1.3 million hectare Forest Future a potential game-changer that could give New Zealand a real shot a creating a safer climate for future generations. Climate-focused business group Pure Advantage today released a report calling for the planting of 1.3 million hectares of forest to combat climate change and shift New Zealander to a low-carbon economy. “Planting on this scale is a huge but necessary step towards creating a safer climate for...

A major report detailing the impacts of climate change on New Zealand is a reality check for the Government, and shows National needs to stop talking and start acting to combat climate pollution, the Green Party said today. A major report released today by a group of top scientists and academics at the Royal Society of New Zealand shows that a failure to reduce climate-damaging pollution will put coastal property and infrastructure at risk, double the frequency of droughts in...

The Green Party is calling on the National Government to immediately promise not to use any of the emission reduction units it knows to be fraudulent, in order to meet its global commitments to cut climate pollution.   Today the Morgan Foundation released a report claiming the Government allowed “fraudulent” emission reduction units from the Ukraine and Russia to be bought by New Zealand polluters so that the country could meet its 2020 climate target on the cheap.   ‘Emission...

The Green Party is calling on the Government to immediately cancel all the fake emission reduction units it owns and admit it cheated in order to meet its global commitments to cut climate pollution.. Today the Morgan Foundation alleged in the Listener Magazine that the Government allowed ‘fraudulent’ emission reduction units from the Ukraine and Russia to be used so New Zealand could meet its 2020 climate target on the cheap. ‘Emission reduction units’ allow New Zealand polluters to pay...