Category: Green Party

Source: Green Party

The Green Party says the Government’s retrograde move to tighten up on Work from Home arrangements is the latest in a series of blows to the Public Service.

“This is shallow soundbite policy and a cheap shot to a public service that is being gutted by the Government,” says the Green Party Spokesperson for the Public Service, Francisco Hernandez.

“Our public service needs to be supported so it can support our communities. Undermining our public servants at every opportunity will only lead to an erosion of the services we all rely on. 

“We saw firsthand during the pandemic the benefit of flexible work arrangements and how they can support people to achieve a better work life balance, being beneficial to productivity and morale. 

“This gimmick Government wants to take us back to the pre-internet days when we lacked the flexibility to adopt working arrangements that work for our workers. This Government quite clearly mistrusts and undervalues the public service. 

“How can the Government claim this is about improving the performance of the public service when it has repeatedly punched down on our public servants? 

“It is laughable for the Prime Minister to claim that this will be good for the Wellington CBD when his Government has cut almost 7,000 public service jobs, which has had devastating down-stream effects to the local economy. 

“If we want to reinvigorate the heart of our cities, we need to support public and active transport, bolster our urban density and stop gutting public services, slashing jobs and cutting incomes.

“Public servants should have the right to safe, decent and meaningful work that affords them the right balance of working from home and from the office. This should be a discussion between employers and employees, not something that is dictated by Nicola Willis.  

“The Greens would reform our employment laws for all workers in New Zealand to enable flexible working arrangements, including working from home,” says Francisco Hernandez.

Source: Green Party

Today’s GDP figures combined with the injustice of our tax system will mean more pain for our lowest-income households while those at the top remain relatively unscathed. 

“Whether it’s high inflation or a manufactured recession, intentional Government policies see regular New Zealanders pay the price while the rich laugh their way to the bank,” says Green Party Co-Leader, Chlöe Swarbrick. 

“It doesn’t have to be this way. We can have a tax system and economy that works for people and planet, instead of exploiting both. We don’t live in a game of Monopoly. The rules can and must change when they don’t work for the majority of people.

“Luxon’s Government has chosen to double down on trickle down tax cuts which disproportionately benefit the wealthiest by siphoning resources from those who need it and the creaking infrastructure all of us rely on.

“Today’s research from Tax Justice Aotearoa makes clear that National’s crying wolf that the wealthy would leave the country if they paid their fair share simply doesn’t add up. In Australia, England, America and several other comparable countries, those same people would pay far higher taxes and more fairly contribute to the social infrastructure necessary for them to generate that wealth in the first place.

“Nothing in this country is working as it should. Our hospitals, schools and public services are starved of the resources they need to thrive, and all of us pay the price of escalating inequality and a deteriorating social contract.

“A year ago, the IRD told us the wealthiest 311 households hold more wealth than the bottom two and a half million New Zealanders. That’s not an accident. It’s the consequence of a tax system that sees those at the top pay an effective tax rate less than half that of the average New Zealander.

“That means multi-multi-millionaires are paying a lower effective tax rate than nurses, teachers, firefighters and supermarket checkout operators. That’s unfair. It can and must change.

“The Greens campaigned unapologetically on ensuring the wealthiest pay their fair share. If we did that, we could introduce a tax-free bracket for income below $10,000, fund meaningful climate action, build tens of thousands of public houses, de-carbonise and reduce energy costs for homes, make dental care-free and invest in the infrastructure we all rely on for the country we all deserve,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.

Notes to Editors –

Our tax plan includes:

• A 2.5% Wealth Tax on assets – things like properties or shares – worth more than $4 million (minus mortgages and other debt) for couples and $2 million (minus mortgages and other debt) for individuals. This will not affect most family homes or retirement savings
• A Trust Tax of 1.5% so people cannot just move their money into a trust to avoid the Wealth Tax. 
• A new top rate of income tax of 45% on income over $180,000, so the top earners contribute more. 
• A new corporate tax rate of 33%, returning corporate tax to what it was before National came into government in 2008. 

Source: Green Party

New climate projections from NIWA underscore how urgently climate action is needed.

“A future of flood and drought painted by NIWA is the reality of an unabated climate crisis,” says Green Party Co-leader and spokesperson for Climate Change, Chlöe Swarbrick.  

“These projections show us that climate delay is the new denial, and emphasise how this Government’s plan to increase emissions will cost us all dearly.

“We can have an economy that works for people and planet, instead of exploiting both. That means stopping pollution at the source and ensuring a just transition.

“Instead, the Government’s draft Emissions Reduction Plan relies on technologies that are not guaranteed and planting pine trees. This lack of ambition will take us off track to reach 2050 carbon neutrality, and worse, compound inequality. Luxon’s over-reliance on market mechanisms will cost the poorest New Zealanders four times as much money as the wealthiest.

“We cannot ignore inconvenient truths. We’re talking about the hard scientific fundamentals necessary for life on earth as we know it. This can and must be yet another wake-up call to meet the climate crisis with the scale of transformative action it requires.

“The climate crisis is no longer a yarn about future generations. We’re talking about the growing risk of climate-change-charged weather like the Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle becoming all the more commonplace in our lifetimes, directly exacerbated by immense pollution enabled by negligent Government policies.

“It’s time for Christopher Luxon to show some leadership and live up to his own word that we will meet our climate commitments – which his own Government policy plans currently themselves say we’ll miss,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.

Source: Green Party

Today’s announcement from the Minister of Workplace Relations emphasises how deep in the pocket of big business this Government really is. 

“This is the latest episode in a series of assaults on workers’ rights,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for Workplace Relations, Teanau Tuiono. 

“Our economy has been built upon the backs of our workers, by supporting our workers we support ourselves. Across generations and over many decades, the rights of workers have been hard fought for and should be celebrated as a hallmark of a modern economy that looks after people.  

“However, the Government is laying a brick wall between the most vulnerable workers and the rights that belong to them. 

“The coalition’s proposed amendments to the Employment Relations Act will insert another barrier for people who are classed as contractors being able to have the reality of their working arrangements be recognised as an employee. 

“This is something that quite clearly plays directly into the hands of companies looking to cut corners and boost profit margins at the expense of our workers – by denying people sick pay, holiday pay, and job security. It’s yet another example of this Government legislating over hard-won rights in the favour of the corporate interests.

“These changes would also allow companies to limit the number of people they employ on full-time contracts and instead rely on flimsy working arrangements that have less protections and less accountability. 

“This slapdash approach goes against the recent Court of Appeal ruling on the Uber case which carefully considered the nature of the working arrangement on the facts, and confirmed the legal status quo that if it looks like an employment arrangement and works like an employment arrangement, it’s an employment arrangement. 

“A Green Government would undo the laundry list of attacks on the rights of workers this Government is guilty of, including this one,” says Teanau Tuiono. 

Source: Green Party

The Government must abandon its Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act interventions after the Waitangi Tribunal found it was committing gross breaches of the Treaty.

“This Government is throwing relations between Māori and the Crown into deeper disharmony,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, Steve Abel. 

“Māori rights to their Customary waters are at the core of what Te Tiriti guarantees. We need to uphold and honour the founding agreement our nation is built upon.

“But the Government is trampling all over Te Tiriti by attacking Te iwi Māori customary rights to the marine and coastal area. We must call this what it is – an act of Raupatu.

“The Government cannot hide behind a false narrative of ‘restoring parliamentary intent’, it is quite clear that its real intention is to undermine tangata whenua customary rights. This is a complete mischaracterisation of the past that is being used to advance the interests of those who want to take rights from Māori and exploit our oceans for private gain. 

“The Waitangi Tribunal found that it is breaching the principle of tino rangatiratanga by riding roughshod over Māori rights and interests in te takutai moana without providing evidence for its claim that the public’s rights and interests require further protection.

“Following last year’s Court of Appeal decision which represented a sign of progress in recognising tikanga Māori, this Government’s proposed amendments to MACA would take Māori Crown relations backwards.

“The Green Party will stand alongside Te iwi Māori and against the Government’s confiscation of their customary rights to the marine and coastal environment,” says Steve Abel. 

Source: Green Party

As Te Wiki o te Reo Māori approaches, the Government is considering deprioritising teaching Te Reo Māori in our schools. 

“Te Reo Māori is a taonga unique to Aotearoa we must protect and empower at all costs,” says the Green Party’s Education spokesperson, Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan. 

“Our indigenous language provides us all with an opportunity to connect and engage with the very essence of Aotearoa and deepen our understanding of Te Ao Māori. An Aotearoa that upholds and embraces Te Tiriti is one that allows Te Reo to flourish.

“Currently, a primary objective for schools is to take ‘all reasonable steps to make instruction available in tikanga Māori and te reo Māori’. 

“However, the Government is consulting on the deprioritisation of Te Reo and replacing it with a blanket directive to make achievement the top priority over everything else.

“It is incredibly poor taste for the Government to be consulting on the deprioritisation of Te Reo in schools as we head into the 52nd anniversary of the Māori language petition and this year’s Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. 

“This change could throw our goal of having 1 million reo speakers by 2040 into jeopardy. It was not too long ago that Te Reo was banned in schools and left on the brink of becoming history. Its revival is something we should be proud of and be looking to build on. 

“We are calling on the public to sign our petition that demands the Government leaves Te Reo in schools alone. We need the public to make its voice heard on this, we must prevent our indigenous language from fading away.

“Te Reo is a taonga that must be preserved for future generations to enjoy,” says Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan.

Source: Green Party

The Government’s directive to the public service to ignore race is nothing more than a dog whistle and distraction from the structural racism we need to address.  

“Racism is real and carries a grave burden, pretending it doesn’t exist will not make it go away,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for Public Services Francisco Hernandez. 

“Our public service should be set up in a way that sees all communities supported and nobody left behind. Aotearoa has historically fallen short of this standard, with Māori and Pasifika alongside other minorities consistently showing up as having poorer outcomes in health, education and too many other fields. 

“The Government’s moral compass has quite clearly gone missing, with Aotearoa being driven backwards and away from the inclusive and supportive society we know we all want. 

“The reality is that need and race are intertwined. Failing to acknowledge the structural racism that plagues our communities will see it only get worse while needs remain unmet. 

“Generations of state-sponsored racism does not just disappear, it lingers. The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State Care is one example of how deliberate and discriminatory the state was in its treatment of tamariki. We need a targeted approach to rectify the wrongs of our past and confront the challenges of our present. 

“This is nothing more than a dog whistle and a distraction from the Government’s failure to address the critical issues we are facing as a country. From patients dying in overcrowded ER rooms to bus drivers being bashed in racist attacks, our public service has issues that need to be addressed and racism is quite clearly still a problem for us to face.   

“We need to have a mature conversation about how we build a public service that caters for all our communities and ensures those who have been historically left behind and let down are finally empowered with the support they need. 

“Our communities deserve so much better than the shallow politics and hollow policies this Government is dishing out on an almost daily basis,” says Francisco Hernandez. 

Source: Green Party

Concerns have been raised that our spy arrangements may mean that intelligence is being shared between Aotearoa and Israel. An urgent inquiry must be launched in response to this.

“Any potential connection to Israel’s genocidal regime must be investigated. Aotearoa cannot afford to have any links to the crimes against humanity being committed in Gaza,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, Teanau Tuiono. 

“As a nation, we have a proud and enduring history of standing up for peace and fighting for justice where injustices lie. 

“Any possibility of us supporting Israel’s illegal military operations must be investigated. Any connection to the atrocities being committed by Israel would represent a complete betrayal of the values and moral standards this country is grounded in. 

“Associate Professor Treasa Dunworth, Dr Max Harris and Vinod Bal were incredibly clear in their letter to the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security: There is cause for concern that our intelligence is being gathered in a way which may ultimately see it being shared with Israel. 

“We have a duty to ensure that our country does not assist in the perpetration of international crimes.

“Our involvement in this conflict would see us fall onto the wrong side of history and erode any future credibility we have when it comes to advocating for human rights on the international stage. We cannot call for other countries to respect the international rule of law if we are party to breaches of it ourselves. 

“This matter must be urgently investigated. 

“Day after day, the death toll continues to rise. We need to be doing all we can to help build a pathway towards peace while ensuring we are in no way, shape or form contributing to this devastating conflict,” says Teanau Tuiono. 

Source: Green Party

The Greens welcome today’s long-coming announcement by Pharmac of consultation to remove the special authority renewal criteria for methylphenidate, dexamfetamine and modafinil and to fund lisdexamfetamine.

“Today will be celebrated by hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders living with ADHD,” says Green Party Co-leader and Mental Health spokesperson Chlöe Swarbrick. 

“Finally, we have achieved concrete steps for more accessible and affordable treatment. 

“This announcement has been years in the making, and is only happening because of the mahi of many behind the scenes, especially ADHD NZ. Darrin and Suzanne have been tireless champions. 

“It has been a personal and political honour to work alongside our neurodivergent community and our advocates, across the House and Governments of different stripes, to secure the most significant steps forward in decades for those living with ADHD. 

“I want to acknowledge the GPs, psychiatrists, paediatricians, psychologists, nurse practitioners, officials and of course those with lived experience who joined our two Parliamentary hui over recent years to push this kaupapa forward.

“The Special Authority process currently requires someone with ADHD to go back to a psychiatrist every two years to confirm they still have ADHD. This has been clearly identified time and again as a major cost and barrier to accessing treatment. Ultimately, many go without, and the real cost of that in people’s lives, whānau, workplaces and negative social statistics can be unbearable – but it is preventable.

“New Zealanders with ADHD have also long been denied treatments funded in comparable jurisdictions like Australia. Today’s consultation on funding for lisdexamfetamine presents a hopeful opportunity for a medication understood to be less open to abuse, and therefore greater, sensible access to appropriate treatment. 

“Everyone should be enabled to live their best lives and be their best selves. Today is a step towards turning this ambition into a reality for more New Zealanders with ADHD.

“Everyone who helped fight for this should be proud, and must remember to submit on the consultation! The mahi, unfortunately, doesn’t stop here,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.

Notes:

Source: Green Party

On one hand, the Prime Minister has assured Aotearoa that his party will not support the Treaty Principles Bill beyond first reading, but on the other, his Government has already sought advice on holding a referendum on our founding document. 

“Seeking advice on holding a Treaty referendum cuts completely against the grain of the assurances Luxon has given the public on the Treaty Principles Bill,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for Māori Development, Hūhana Lyndon.

“Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the enduring heartbeat of Aotearoa and not something that can be erased by way of referendum. As our founding document, it establishes a blueprint for a relationship between Tangata Whenua and Tangata Tiriti. Te Tiriti binds us together, it should not be used to drive us apart.

“Earlier this year, Luxon stood at Waitangi and said Te Tiriti was our past, present and future. Last week at Tūrangawaewae he spoke about the importance of Kotahitanga. But this week his Cabinet has sought advice on holding a Treaty referendum. None of this makes sense. 

“Once again, Luxon’s rhetoric is failing to match the reality of his actions. This two-faced performance falls far short of the accountability Te Iwi Māori deserve when it comes to Te Tiriti. 

“On the one hand, Luxon has said his party remains committed to shutting down the Bill, but on the other, his Cabinet is allowing this conversation to continue by supporting a six-month select committee process while seeking advice on holding a referendum. A process which officials have said will have a negative effect on social cohesion. 

“The Prime Minister must abandon this Bill that attempts to re-write our history and essentially erase Māori from it. It is not fit for Parliament and would unearth and embolden some incredibly harmful views. 

“It is high time that Luxon stood up for the good of our nation and upheld the dignity, meaning and integrity of our founding agreement,” says Hūhana Lyndon.