Category: Labour Party

Addressing climate change is the right thing to do to safeguard our environment for future generations, but it’s also the smart thing to do – taking action now is in our economic interests and will reduce cost pressures on Kiwi households. 

The Chris Hipkins Government is continuing to take action to protect our environment and secure New Zealand’s clean, green export brand. 

Here’s how:

This week, we announced a partnership with BlackRock, one of the world’s largest investors in climate infrastructure and clean technology, to launch a $2 billion fund with the goal of making New Zealand one of the first countries in the world to reach 100% renewable electricity.

This fund demonstrates the huge economic potential of us being a climate leader. It proves again that we can grow our economy while we lower emissions, and is a massive opportunity for New Zealand innovators to develop and grow companies. 

It shows that our ambitious climate targets have the world’s attention, and that they are good for the climate, good for the economy, and will help create highly skilled jobs, while being a game-changer for the clean tech sector.

On top of this, we’ve also recently announced we’ve also announced plans to fast-track solar and wind generation projects that would produce more power than the Clyde Dam – the country’s third largest hydro dam – at a fraction of the time, cost and impact on the environment.

We recently announced that we’re partnering with Fonterra to cut coal use at its dairy factories, delivering massive emissions reductions, and future-proofing New Zealand trade and exports. 

Fonterra has committed to undertaking a complex range of projects to cut coal use across six manufacturing sites – resulting in approximately 2.1 million tonnes of earlier CO2e reductions. The reductions are the same as taking approximately 120,000 cars off the road.

This hugely significant commitment means the dairy sector will dramatically cut its coal use quicker – this is not just critical for our environment, but for our economy too.

We’re taking a major step towards protecting the Hauraki Gulf for future generations – announcing significant new marine protections for the area.

The Hauraki Gulf — Tīkapa Moana – is an absolute treasure and needs to be protected for the enjoyment of future generations. It’s also an essential and traditional source of food, and a vital part of our economy for the tourism, transport and seafood sectors, with a recent assessment putting the economic value of the Gulf at $100 billion.

This week we announced that we’re nearly tripling the area that’s under protection, increasing coverage to 18% of the Gulf with 19 new marine protection areas.

We’re restricting the practice of bottom trawling from large areas of the Gulf, alongside tailored fisheries plans to support the unique ecosystem. And a new protect tool, the high protection area, will recognise kaitiakitanga and cultural practices of tangata whenua while also meeting strong conservation outcomes.

The best way to protect this special marine ecosystem is to find conservation solutions which work for everyone – and that’s exactly what this action to revitalise the Gulf does.

Labour has taken more action on climate change than any other prior government combined, and our actions mean that New Zealand is on track to achieve our first emissions budget.

Real progress began with our ban on granting new offshore oil and gas exploration permits in 2018, sending a clear market signal that future electricity generation investment needs to be renewable in order to hit our target of 100% by 2030.

Since then, we have:

• Passed the landmark Zero Carbon Act, putting into law our goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050
• Overhauled the Emissions Trading Scheme
• Made electric cars more affordable and are experiencing one of the highest uptakes of EVs anywhere in the world
• Invested in climate and agriculture research and science
• Provided support for businesses to remove coal boilers and switch from expensive fossil fuels
• Invested in rail, public transport and walking and cycling infrastructure

Because of actions like these, New Zealand is now bending the curve on emissions with climate pollution falling through 2020, 2021 and 2022, with the December 2022 quarter delivering the lowest figure in at least nine years.

We can’t opt out of the effects of climate change, so we can’t opt out of taking action. A low emissions future is achievable for New Zealand, and with a Chris Hipkins Government we’re well on our way.

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Everyone deserves a healthy and affordable place to call home.

But for many New Zealanders, the dream of owning their own home has felt like it’s moving further out of reach. We’re determined to change that.

The Chris Hipkins Government is working hard to make housing more affordable for all New Zealanders – and we’re making good progress.

Here’s how:

To make housing more affordable for both first-home buyers and renters, New Zealand needs to build more homes to meet demand. It’s a challenge that we’re tackling on all fronts.

One of the ways that we’re adding to the country’s housing stock is through our public home-building programme. We’ve already added over 13,000 additional public houses and we’re on track to deliver over 18,000 new public and transitional housing places by 2024.

The fast pace of delivery of public housing means that on a yearly basis, we’re delivering the most public homes since the 1950s. And one in seven of all public homes in New Zealand has now been delivered by our Government. 

We’ve also made changes to the systems that have prevented more housing from being built. We know that one of the largest barriers to the construction of more homes is a lack of basic infrastructure.

Our Infrastructure Acceleration Fund – designed to speed up the pace and scale of house building – has taken a big step toward tackling this problem. This initiative is jumpstarting housing developments by funding the vital infrastructure needed for new housing – like roads, water pipes, and flood management systems. This funding is enabling 30,000 to 35,000 new homes across New Zealand over the next 10 to 15 years.

We’re also delivering a new resource management system to cut red tape, lower costs and speed up the time it takes to get new housing and infrastructure projects approved. By making the process quicker, cheaper and better, we’re helping to unlock the housing that New Zealand needs.

In addition to putting New Zealand on a path to more housing construction, we’ve taken a range of actions to help people buy their first home, including curbing unfair practices that drive up house prices – like speculation.

As house prices have climbed in recent decades, so too has the cost of a down payment. This represents a major barrier for many first-time buyers – especially young families.

That’s why we’ve put in place the First Home Grant and First Home Loan to help people pull together the funds they need, and we’ve updated the settings to ensure they reflect the housing market so more people can get them.

We’ve also launched a Progressive Home Ownership scheme, which includes shared equity and rent-to-own arrangements. This scheme helps to alleviate the barriers caused by high house prices by providing more time and support to people on the path to homeownership, and by allowing them to live and grow in their homes.

We’ve made renting fairer for New Zealanders. We modernised the outdated Residential Tenancies Act by banning no-cause terminations, limiting rent increases to once a year, and enabling tenants to make changes like quake-proofing. We also got rid of unfair letting fees, which drove up costs for families, and lots more.

We’re also committed to ensuring safe, secure and affordable housing for older New Zealanders.

Just this week we released a discussion paper with proposed changes to our retirement villages sector. There are improvements that could be made to better serve the housing needs of older Kiwis. This includes consumer protection, rebalancing the rights and responsibilities of residents and operators, and supporting the ongoing viability of the sector.

In tough times, it’s normal to look for change. But you don’t move forward by looking back. There’s no quick fix to a housing crisis that has been decades in the making, but actions like these are starting to make a real difference. Now, we need to keep going.

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