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...

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...

Today’s announcement that construction work on the City Rail Link will begin this year is a further sign that the Government needs to get on board with immediate funding, the Green Party said today. “While today’s construction announcement is a positive step, if the Government continues to delay funding the people of Auckland will be waiting another decade for decent train services,” said Green Party Transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter. “Auckland rail patronage has grown 20 percent in the year...

The urban cycling infrastructure projects announced today are not enough to prevent costly injuries to cyclists and encourage commuters and school children to cycle, the Green Party said today. Green Party transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said “The projects announced today are small steps in the right direction but the government’s own advice is that much more must be done to make cycling safer.” Documents released to the Green Party under the Official Information Act show that while the Ministry...

The National Government is misusing evidence provided in the Motu report on planning rules to justify gutting the environmental protections secured by the Resource Management Act (RMA), says the Green Party today. The Motu group’s research into the impacts of planning rules looked at the costs related to housing development but not the benefits of environmental protections and does not recommend significant changes to the RMA to reduce the cost of new house builds. “Environment Minister Nick Smith is misusing...

The National Government must stop using the Resource Management Act as the straw manfor its own failure to build more homes and put an end to the country’s housing crisis, the Green Party says. Today, Environment Minister Nick Smith announced the first tranche of plans to weaken the RMA saying that it was ‘crucial’ to addressing housing supply and affordability. However, property developers and planners today said the Act isn’t standing in their way. “Changing the RMA won’t build a...

A survey showing that only a tiny fraction of resource consent applications are declined makes a nonsense of the Government’s claims that the Resource Management Act is getting in the way of housing development, the Green Party says.  

The National Government is planning to allocate ever increasing amounts of taxpayer funding to build expensive new motorways despite record numbers of New Zealanders flocking to buses and trains, said the Green Party. The Government released its Government Policy Statement on Land Transport 2015/16-2024/25 (GPS) today. This statement sets the parameters for a $39 billion investment in New Zealand’s transport networks over the next ten years. “The National Government is investing over $33 billion in roads over the next ten...

The National Government is suffocating Auckland’s transport development by holding back its funding for the vital City Rail Link, said the Green Party today. Auckland Council voted today to delay the main works on the City Rail Link to 2018 because the National Government won’t commit funding before 2020. This comes in spite of record patronage growth this year, which places Auckland trains on track to hit 20 million users annually by 2018. “The current rail system is being pushed...

The National Government is delaying Auckland’s rail development, while pushing ahead with the expensive Puhoi to Wellsford motorway, a motorway with declining traffic volumes, benefiting fewer people and business, said the Green Party today. Yesterday, Mayor Len Brown proposed to push back the start date of the City Rail Link due to a lack of funding certainty. The National Government has said it will not commit funding before 2020, despite huge growth on the rail network. “The Government has got...