The Green Party is hoping National’s eighth budget today will address the great challenges of our time, and not just be another exercise in papering over the cracks in New Zealand society, economy and the environment. “After eight years of baby steps, we’re hoping Budget 2016 will take some big steps forwards towards a cleaner, fairer, more compassionate future,” said Green Party Co-leader James Shaw. “Eight years into John Key’s term, people are asking what exactly is National’s big vision...

It’s time for the National Government to step up and do the right thing to reduce climate pollution as data shows New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions are higher than ever, the Green Party said today. The Greenhouse Gas inventory released by the Ministry for the Environment shows that New Zealand’s emissions have risen 23 percent since 1990, when the Government should be focussing on reducing emissions. “After eight years in government and lots of talk about reducing climate pollution, National...

The Green Party is today calling on the Prime Minister to apologise for smearing some of New Zealand’s leading charities, as well as a Green MP, in Parliament in an attempt to take the heat off his Government over the foreign trusts tax-dodging scandal. Yesterday John Key used Parliamentary privilege to wrongly claim that Amnesty, Greenpeace and the Red Cross had been implicated in the Panama Papers leak, and that Green MP Mojo Mathers had a foreign trust. The charities...

The National Government helped facilitate Mossack Fonsecca’s tax avoidance business in New Zealand when it put a stop to Inland Revenue’s proposed review of foreign trust regulation, the Green Party says.

The Government must urgently broaden its limited review of foreign trusts in light of new revelations of the extent of New Zealand’s involvement in the global tax avoidance industry, the Green Party said today. “Newly revealed leaked documents from Mossack Fonseca demonstrate that New Zealand has become an integral part of the global tax avoidance network,” said Green Party Co-leader James Shaw. “It’s time for the Prime Minister to stop defending the tax avoidance industry and broaden the review of...

The Prime Minster today should have come out and promised he’d throw everything he’s got at cleaning up foreign trusts, and stamping out the tax avoidance industry, the Green Party said today.   “It is extraordinary to see our Prime Minister call a press conference to defend tax avoidance and dodgy practices in the New Zealand foreign trusts industry,” said Green Party Co-leader James Shaw. “We are calling on the Prime Minister to come clean about New Zealand’s role in...

Former Revenue Minister Todd McClay met twice with foreign trust lobbyists but met with no other stakeholder groups before deciding to stop a review into foreign trusts, the Green Party said today. The current Minister of Revenue, Michael Woodhouse, confirmed the one-sided process taken by his predecessor in Parliament at Question Time today. Minister McClay met with the Prime Minister’s lawyer, Ken Whitney, and others on December 18, 2014 in Auckland and then one other time with OliverShaw acting as...

The Government can follow Australia’s lead and close the loopholes multinational companies are using to avoid paying their fair share of tax, the Green Party said today. New measures announced in Australia’s 2016 Budget include penalising companies caught shifting profits out of Australia at a rate of 40 percent, rather than the usual 30 percent rate. The Australian Tax Office will also get a 1,000-person strong team of tax avoidance specialists who will target large companies and wealthy individuals avoiding...

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...