Category: Green Party

Source: Green Party

Sanctions on beneficiaries have sky-rocketed since the Coalition Government came to power, pushing more families into poverty.

“This heartless Government has more than doubled benefit sanctions, stripping people of their dignity and ability to put food on the table,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for Social Development and Employment, Ricardo Menéndez March.

“People deserve to live in dignity, they deserve to be supported in times of need. We can afford to look after one another, all that is missing is the political will. 

“Families living in poverty deserve more than smoke and mirrors from Louise Upston who is refusing to address child poverty while introducing more ways to push beneficiaries into hardship.  

“Benefit sanctions for missing an appointment have almost tripled. This is quite clearly not about supporting people into work but depriving people in need of the means to survive. 

“The Government has turned its back on our communities in need, adding fuel to the fire when it comes to growing inequality and widening poverty. 

“The Prime Minister may be ‘wealthy’ and ‘sorted’ but a lot of people out there are struggling. It is time he woke up to this reality and started doing something about it.  

“A Green Government will overturn this cruel system of sanctions that only makes life harder for beneficiaries and their whanau. 

“We would instead guarantee liveable incomes for all, and provide tailored support to connect people to employment that provides secure hours, decent wages and helps them meet their aspirations,” says Ricardo Menéndez March.

Source: Green Party

Today’s report from the International Energy Agency highlights how far this Government’s actions are dragging us backwards in the fight against climate change. 

“Luxon’s decision to pour fossil fuel on the climate crisis fire actively undermines not only energy security and resilience, but a climate-safe future,” says Green Party Co-Leader and spokesperson for Climate Change Chlöe Swarbrick. 

“Today the International Energy Agency issued its annual energy outlook with the key message: energy security and climate action are inextricably linked. 

“The IEA have once again underscored that efficient, cleaner energy systems reduce energy security risks. 

“Unfortunately, we have a Government operating in half-truths, weaponising the energy crisis created by reliance on fossil fuels and incentivised by profit-at-all-costs to somehow justify reinforcing and worsening those very settings.

“The Prime Minister and his Government have tied themselves in knots with the tentacles of the fossil fuel industry, lifting the oil and gas ban, tearing through pristine biodiversity with more coal mines and opening our shores to LNG imports. These actions actively undermine a clean, green transition which is not only critical for a stable climate, but a resilient energy system too.

“A better world is possible. Affordable, more reliable, renewable and resilient energy distribution is possible. Communities across Aotearoa New Zealand want and deserve it. The Greens will continue to fight to deliver that future owed to all of us,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.

Source: Green Party

Stats NZ has confirmed that higher rent prices were the biggest contributor to the annual inflation rate. Almost a fifth of the 2.2 per cent annual increase in the CPI was due to rent prices. 

“Housing is a human right, but this Government is treating it like a game of Monopoly,” says the Green Party’s Housing spokesperson, Tamatha Paul. 

“Everyone deserves a warm and affordable place to call home. We have everything we need to make this happen. All we need to do is start treating housing as the public good it really is instead of exploiting it for profit. 

“Successive governments have turned housing into a business venture, locking people out from having a home while a privileged few benefit at the expense of everybody else. 

“The current landlord Government has only inflamed the situation by handing landlords $2.9 billion in tax cuts while punching down on renters with no cause evictions and allowing rents to spiral out of control.  

“The current system is forcing people into making the impossible choice of either buying essentials like food or paying rent. 

“The Government is entrenching the imbalance between tenant and landlord to the point where people are too afraid to ask for leaks to be fixed or smoke alarms to be replaced out of fear of being kicked out of their home. 

“We deserve better than this. We need rent controls which will limit the amount that landlords can increase rent and how often they can do this. We also need a Rental Warrant of Fitness to ensure quality, and for the Government to commit to building more public housing to make sure that our most marginalised and vulnerable can also have affordable, secure homes.

“Everyone deserves to live in a warm and healthy home,” says Tamatha Paul. 

Source: Green Party

The Green Party has condemned the Government’s late change to allow commercial fishing in protected areas in the Hauraki Gulf.

“This Government has bent over backwards to give fishing lobbyists exactly what they asked for, in an area of precious biodiversity facing ecological collapse,” says the Green Party Spokesperson for the Environment, Lan Pham. 

“Healthy marine environments are the lifeblood of our planet. We can have healthy and thriving fisheries and marine life – now and in the future – if we give fish stocks a chance to recover. 

“The Auckland and wider Hauraki Gulf community alongside iwi and hapū have worked hard for many years to develop a framework for protecting the health of the Gulf, under the guidance of the Hauraki Gulf Forum, but this coalition comes along and rides roughshod over that mahi at the whim of commercial fishing.

“To exempt commercial fishing from the provisions in the Hauraki Gulf Protection Bill means the Government is prepared to allow stocks of various fish and marine species to tip over the edge into extinction.

“The Minister’s spin about ‘significant protection’ should fool nobody. The Government is backtracking on marine conservation goals long established through community consensus, placing the ecological health of Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana at grave risk.

“This is how the Luxon Government approaches lawmaking – erode the agency of community-driven consensus, particularly where it relates to the environment – in order to line the pockets of their industry mates.

“The Bill had been supported unanimously by coalition parties at the Environment Select Committee, with careful consideration of different uses of the Gulf. So to come in at the last minute and exempt commercial fishing in this backhanded manner is another undemocratic trait of this Government.

“Be it tobacco, fossil fuels, seabed mining or fisheries, this Government has made it crystal clear that the rules which apply to everyone else in our democratic and legislative processes don’t apply to industry and companies who have the ear of ministers. 

“New Zealanders deserve a government that acts in the interests of our whole community, not the lobbyists with the deepest pockets,” says Lan Pham.

Source: Green Party

The Green Party has welcomed news that MP Teanau Tuiono’s Member’s Bill has moved forward with unanimous support from the select committee. 

“This is a significant step forward and a monumental milestone for Pasifika justice in Aotearoa,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for Pacific Peoples, Teanau Tuiono.

“Today, Parliament’s Governance and Administration Select Committee reported my Restoring Citizenship Removed By Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill to the House for its second reading. 

“Committee members were unanimous in supporting the primary intent of my Bill to restore citizenship to Samoans who had it taken from them by the New Zealand Government in 1982. 

“This endorsement from the select committee is an encouraging sign for the journey that lies ahead in securing justice for our aiga Samoa. I want to acknowledge the community who came to the select committee to share their stories in both powerful and compelling ways.

“My Member’s Bill will restore the right to citizenship for people from Western Samoa who were born between 1924 and 1949, fixing a cruel and targeted law rushed through by the Government in 1982 to deny New Zealand citizenship to Samoans. 

“Earlier that year, the Privy Council found that because those born in Western Samoa were treated by New Zealand law as ‘natural-born British subjects’, they were entitled to New Zealand citizenship when it was first created in 1948. But that right was then taken away from them.

“For those people still alive today who were New Zealand citizens and had this right shamefully removed at the whim of a Government forty-two years ago, this is another big step towards justice.

“I’d like to thank members of the select committee for their consideration of my Bill and submitters for their contributions to this important discussion. We can make history by ushering this Bill into law,” says Teanau Tuiono.

Source: Green Party

The Green Party echoes a call for banks to divest from entities linked to Israel’s illegal settlements in Palestine, and says Crown Financial Institutions should follow suit.

“How we spend our money counts – the Government must ensure that our country does not assist, or profit from, crimes against humanity,” says the Green Party Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Teanau Tuiono.

“Aotearoa has a long and proud history of advocating for peace. As a country which urges others to follow international law, we should walk the talk, and ensure our trade and investments aren’t party to breaches of international law.

“The Green Party supports the ultimatum given today by Justice for Palestine to ASB KiwiSaver to divest from entities linked to illegal Israeli settlements. We also call on the Government to ensure Crown Financial Institutions do likewise.

“New Zealand must act in accordance with July’s International Court of Justice advisory opinion on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories – it’s unacceptable for Crown Financial Institutions to invest in entities linked to illegal activity.

“New Zealand also supported the recent UN resolution demanding Israel end its ‘unlawful presence’ in Palestinian territory – it must do more than simply pay lip service to this. 

“The Government must direct ACC, the Superannuation Fund, and the National Provident Fund to not invest a cent in organisations complicit and associated with Israel’s attacks on civilian populations in Gaza and Lebanon.

“Furthermore, if the BNZ Kiwisaver fund doesn’t divest from weapons companies participating in Israel’s hostilities, the Government must remove BNZ as a default Kiwisaver provider while it invests New Zealanders’ earnings in war crimes, human rights abuses, and suffering.

“New Zealand has a responsibility to ensure that our trade and investments policies aren’t profiting from and supporting unethical behaviour – especially not breaches of international law,” says Teanau Tuiono.

Source: Green Party

The Government’s fast-track list is another example of its reckless approach to the environment and disregard for due process. 

“The government is set to unleash environmental destruction across Aotearoa, while using some potentially worthy projects as a diversion,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for the Environment, Lan Pham.

“Our environment forms the foundation for life as we know it. By looking after nature, we look after ourselves. We need to move on from the archaic, exploitative and extractive approach that has already seen us lose so much.

“However, the Government is selling out to big business by effectively putting our environment up for auction. 

“From the outset, this shadowy legislation has been shrouded in smoke and mirrors while public scrutiny and due democratic process have been completely shut out. 

“What we see in this list is a number of projects that will have long-lasting and potentially irreversible impacts on the environment. Talk of renewable energy and housing – which could be consented under current processes –  are nothing more than a smokescreen to the environmental vandalism this is set to unleash. 

“The fast track still has the power to bulldoze through environmental protections and set aside previous court rulings that declined projects due to their serious environmental harm. The Government is trying to gaslight us all into thinking we need this legislation to build nice things – we don’t. This isn’t about building a better future, it’s all about handouts to big business. 

“We are deeply concerned that projects with massive, irreversible environmental effects – like seabed mining by Trans-Tasman Resources in a marine mammal sanctuary, or gold mine expansion that threatens the future of an entire forest in the Coromandel, are included in the list of projects. Extending the Bathurst coal mine in Buller and digging an open-cast mine in Central Otago during a climate crisis is beyond irresponsible.  

“To make things abundantly clear to companies and potential investors out there looking to profit from this legislation in a way that destroys our precious environment: You need to know that a Green Government will review consents, and revoke those with significant harm,” says Lan Pham. 

Source: Green Party

The Finance and Expenditure Committee’s inquiry into climate adaptation is something that must be built on for an enduring framework to manage climate risk.

“Climate change is here. We must both mitigate further climate changing emissions and we must adapt. Good policy does both,” says Green Party Co-Leader and spokesperson for Climate Change, Chlöe Swarbrick. 

“The Finance and Expenditure Committee inquiry into climate adaptation was the latest step in the opportunity to build an enduring framework that supports communities to plan and help people through change.

“There remains work to do. The inquiry’s recommendations represent a step forward in the parameters of current broad cross-party support but the devil will be in the detail. I am confident after discussion with the Minister that we will continue working collaboratively through these gaps in developing the Climate Adaptation Bill.

“A Green adaptation approach would focus on creating strong support and clear guidance for local governments on land-use and adaptation planning. We believe an approach which enables communities to share and work together to manage and mitigate risk is a fairer, more effective and overall more affordable national approach for managing growing climate risk.

“Te Tiriti is not woven into this report to the extent it should be as our guiding constitutional document. Iwi and hapū are not just another stakeholder group who should be ‘involved’ in decision making, they are Treaty partners.

“We look forward to continued cross-party mahi to ensure the eventual Climate Adaptation Act supports people and planet,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.

Source: Green Party

The end of free Rapid Antigen Tests today is another sign the Government is giving up on the challenge of protecting the community from Covid-19.

“We cannot afford to become complacent with Covid, testing is a tool that should remain accessible to all,” says the Green Party’s Health spokesperson, Hūhana Lyndon.

“Testing is critical to protection, alerting people when they have Covid and when they should avoid interacting with others. It’s one of the most effective things we can do to help protect our immunocompromised and elderly communities. 

“By withdrawing funding for tests, many will miss out, which could lead to the virus spreading and proliferating under the radar. The Government is effectively waving a white flag for this deadly virus to spread more through our communities when the need for protection remains high. 

“The Health Ministry still advises people who are symptomatic to test and take precautions against spreading the virus, so it also should provide access to testing.

“At up to $11.00 per test it is a cost that many families cannot afford – especially under the current government’s regime, which is leaving so many behind. 

“While members of this coalition Government may like to think the pandemic never happened, it is clear that the legacy of the virus lives on. 

“Many people became ill with different strains of Covid this past Winter season, and remain sick. As people socialise more towards the end of year, the risk of Covid spreading doesn’t simply abate.

“We must ensure RAT tests are not just accessible for those who can afford it,” says Hūhana Lyndon.

Source: Green Party

The Government’s move to disregard all evidence and increase speed limits will result in serious harm. 

“The science is conclusive and the evidence is overwhelming: safe speeds save lives,” says the Green Party’s Transport spokesperson, Julie Anne Genter.

“Our kids should be free to walk and cycle to school without worry. Our streets should enable everyone to access their communities safely and sustainably.

“But the Government is trying to force councils and communities to adopt unsafe speeds on dangerous rural roads, in areas with lots of pedestrians and around schools for most of the day. 

“Local councils, health professionals and road safety experts from here and around the world have spoken out opposing this senseless policy, outlining the serious harm it will cause.

“In Auckland, safer speeds were shown to increase trip times by less than 20 seconds on the average 20-minute car journey, but massively reduced deaths and serious injuries. Is 20 seconds worth the risk of a loved one being lost?

“The reality is that people won’t notice getting to their destination seconds earlier, but will notice a family member not making it home. 

“Simeon Brown is dangerously uninformed, and is going against public opinion, expert advice, and even the coalition agreement to reverse speed limit reductions ‘where it safe to do so’. 

“People did not vote for this. National’s election policy promised it would not return higher speeds ‘where it would be unsafe to do so’, yet in Government they are doing the exact opposite despite the warnings of experts and councils. 

“We are dealing with people’s lives here. Failing to follow the evidence and ignoring basic physics will have real-world consequences,” says Julie Anne Genter.