Today’s OECD environmental report has highlighted the urgent need for New Zealand to change direction and move to a low carbon, green economy, the Green Party said today. The OECD has said that New Zealand has the second-highest level of emissions per unit of GDP in the developed world. We also have the fifth-highest emissions per capita. “The New Zealand economy is highly carbon intensive and this can’t be sustained if we want to also play our part in addressing...

Today’s disappointing GDP numbers fail to capture what’s really going on in the New Zealand economy and with our day-to-day lives, the Green Party said today. Gross domestic product (GDP) statistics released today by Statistics New Zealand show that the official part of the New Zealand economy grew by 0.4 percent in the December 2016 quarter. Per capita GDP — a better reflection of people’s wellbeing — actually went backwards by 0.2 percent due to population increases. “GDP may be...

The rising cost of living is hitting people who earn modest incomes and beneficiaries hardest, the Green Party said today. Living costs for beneficiaries and low-spending households rose more than twice as much as for high-spending households in 2016, according to Statistics NZ’s Household Living Costs Price Index data. “Bill English says the economy is humming along nicely but the truth is that while people at the top might be doing well, thousands of families on lower incomes are feeling...

This year is our chance to turn the tide on growing inequality in New Zealand with a change of government, the Green Party said today. A report released this afternoon by Oxfam outlines the growing inequality gap around the world, and coincides with the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos. Oxfam New Zealand has released analysis of this afternoon’s report that shows two New Zealanders have more wealth than the poorest 30 per cent of the adult population. “This...

Finance Minister Steven Joyce is failing to show any moral or political leadership by continuing to allow Government-owned funds to invest New Zealanders’ money in some of the world’s most polluting companies, the Green Party said today. Radio New Zealand reported this morning that the New Zealand Superfund has $77 million invested in 47 coal companies that the Norwegian Government’s Pension Fund – the largest sovereign fund in the world – has blacklisted. “The National Government signed the Paris Agreement...

The National Government has failed to stop high income earners from avoiding paying their fair share of tax, the Green Party said today. IRD released aggregated tax data last week which shows a suspiciously high number of people last year declared their income just before the top tax rate threshold at $70,000. The (highlighted) spike is strong evidence of tax avoidance behaviour. (The lower spikes represent welfare and superannuation payments.) “National’s 2010 tax cuts for high income earners were sold...

The Government’s improving books give it scope to address the long-term deficits National has been running in health, housing, and the environment, the Green Party said today. The Treasury’s Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update, out today, forecasts the Crown’s fiscal position to steadily improve so that by June 2021, surpluses are expected to rise to $8.5 billion and net debt to reduce to 19 percent of GDP. “Treasury has signalled that the Government has scope to address the long-term...

New measures that will sit alongside GDP to chart the nation’s progress, as well as compulsory country-of-origin labelling on food, will be debated in Parliament following today’s Member’s Bill ballot. The Green Party had two bills pulled from the ballot today: Co-leader James Shaw’s Public Finance (Sustainable Development Indicators) Amendment Bill, and MP Steffan Browning’s Consumers’ Right to Know (Country of Origin of Food) Bill. “GDP is a highly imperfect measure of our country’s progress,” said Green Party Co-leader James...

The real cost of living has grown more for people on low incomes, beneficiaries, and superannuitants than it has for people on moderate and high incomes under National, the Green Party said today. New data from Statistics NZ’s Household Living-costs Price Indexes shows the effect of rent and power bills rising faster than the general rate of inflation. Low-expenditure households have seen their living costs rise twice as much as high-expenditure households since 2008. “National has built an economy where...

The Green Party has a plan to strengthen Kiwibank.  When the Reserve Bank recently cut interest rates again, many Kiwis wondered why the big banks didn't pass the savings along to us, their customers. Part of the problem is the National Government has limited Kiwibank’s ability to compete with the big four Aussie-owned banks leaving them free to make unnecessarily large profits off Kiwi households and businesses. We’ve got a plan to change that. We’d strengthen Kiwibank so it can...