Category: New Zealand Legislature

Source: Green Party

Today, Green Party MP Steve Abel has added a new Member’s Bill to the biscuit tin to ensure any product sold in New Zealand meets New Zealand’s animal welfare standards, even if it’s produced overseas.

“We shouldn’t allow on our supermarket shelves what we wouldn’t allow on our farms,” says Green Party Agriculture and Animal Welfare spokesperson, Steve Abel. 

“This is about fairness for animals and for farmers.

“We’re proud of our animal welfare laws here in New Zealand, but right now those laws have a glaring loophole.

“Currently, products which come from animals who have been kept or slaughtered in conditions which would be illegal here, like in sow stalls or battery cages, are still able to be imported and sold in our supermarkets. 

“New Zealanders don’t want to see our welfare values undermined by a loophole that allows cruelty to enter through the back door. 

“My Bill will ensure that imported products meet the same basic standards we expect on our own farms. 

“We can set a global standard that says robust animal welfare doesn’t stop at our borders.

“New Zealanders have been clear that they don’t want animals to suffer here or overseas. A recent poll showed that 83% of New Zealanders want the Government to act to align import standards with domestic laws.

“I will be working across the House to turn this Bill into law.

“If it’s too cruel to produce here, it should be too cruel to sell here,” says Steve Abel.

Source: Green Party

The Green Party has marked May Day with a pre-budget announcement in Tokoroa, detailing the party’s plan for a Green Jobs Guarantee.

“New Zealanders should be in control of our economy, our jobs and our future. We don’t need to leave our fate to be decided by international shareholders,” says Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. 

“From the West Coast of the South Island, to Ohakune, to Tokoroa, in the last year alone, we’ve heard the same devastation driven by the same political decisions to let offshore companies decide the fate of regional communities.

“No more.

“Today, we launch our Green Jobs Guarantee, which will directly create at least 40,000 jobs across this country to rebuild our infrastructure, plant native trees and restore biodiversity, build homes and an economy that we, New Zealanders, own – and can genuinely be proud of.

“We’ve done it before and we can do it again. Before politicians took their hands off the wheel of the economy 40 years ago and sold off the assets we all used to own, we had a Ministry of Works. Our Ministry of Green Works builds on that proud tradition but is future fit for the climate transition.

“Our Future Workforce Agency, Mahi Anamata, will actively plan for the skills we need. We’ll revitalise and supercharge the roaring success of Jobs for Nature, and we’ll ensure everyone in this country who wants a good, decent, living-wage paying job will get one.

“In a time of global volatility, after a forty-year economic experiment that’s failed regular people and is currently seeing record numbers leave the country, it’s time to take back control and build our resilience.

“A better world is possible, and this is how we build it,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.

Source: Green Party

The Government’s Budget looks set to usher in a new age of austerity. This morning, Minister of Finance Nicola Willis said new spending would be limited to $1.4 billion, cut back from the original intended $2.4 billion, which itself was already $100 million below what Treasury said was needed to keep the lights on.

“New Zealanders looking around at the state of global politics and asking how things got so bad have their answer in the kind of slash and burn economics Nicola Willis has promised the country today,” says Green Party co-leader and spokesperson for Finance Chlöe Swarbrick. 

“The Government has decided its job isn’t done growing poverty, climate changing emissions and homelessness. They’ve announced they’re going to go harder shredding the services we all rely on, meaning life is set to get harder and more expensive for regular people.

“This is the austerity play book: defund public services to failure, watch them fail, then privatise; take the so-called ‘cost’ off the Government’s books and watch those costs rise for regular people.

“It doesn’t have to be this way. We can reduce the cost of living and climate changing emissions while increasing our quality of life – if we have a Government that cares to actually do these things.

“It’s not inevitable that people’s lives get worse, as the Government seems intent on telling everyone. In a few weeks’ time, the Greens will release our plan for the future entirely within our reach: a Government budget that supports the wellbeing of people and planet, instead of exploiting and exhausting both,” says Chlöe Swarbrick. 

Source: Green Party

The Green Party has renewed its call for the Government to ban the use, supply, and manufacture of engineered stone products, as the CTU launches a petition for the implementation of a full ban.

“Let’s put people before profits and protect our workers by banning this dangerous product,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for Workplace Relations and Safety, Teanau Tuiono.

“Workers are the backbone of our economy, and their safety must be protected from dangerous practices including the use of engineered stone, the dust from which can lead to fatal lung disease.

“Australia banned this product following extensive consultation and analysis, revealing incontrovertible scientific evidence of the dangers posed by silica dust exposure to workers. What’s stopping our country emulating this ban?

“Instead of looking for excuses to reduce workplace protections and safeguards, the Government must prioritise workers’ rights that have been fought for over generations

“Aotearoa has serious mahi to do regarding workplace safety, as far more people are injured or killed on the job here than in countries like the UK or Australia.

“Banning engineered stone is a good place to start,” says Teanau Tuiono.

Source: Green Party

The Green Party recognises the extension of visa allowances for our Pacific whānau as a step in the right direction but continues to call for a Pacific Visa Waiver. 

“The Greens continue to call for our Pacific neighbours to be granted Visa Waiver status as a necessary step to strengthen and honour our relationships in the region,” says Green Party spokesperson for Pacific Peoples Teanau Tuiono.

“While an extended visa period will lessen the financial and administrative burden for our Pacific whānau, we continue asking them to pay more money and face more delays to visit families compared to other countries. 

“This is a missed opportunity to deliver what our Pacific whānau deserve.

“Earlier this year, the Green Party launched our petition to allow Pacific whānau visa-free access to Aotearoa. This would see people from all Pacific Island nations – those in the Pacific Islands Forum and those not – travel to Aotearoa without needing to jump through the hoops of bureaucracy to get a visa. 

“Aotearoa is part of the family of Pacific nations. We must remove unfair barriers to entry for our Pacific whānau,” said Teanau Tuiono.

Source: Green Party

The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship.

“The Government should be ashamed of the fact that more children are going without enough food and bare essentials under their watch,” says Green Party Social Development spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March.

“Everyone in Aotearoa deserves a warm, dry home, a bed of their own, and a full belly. What’s achingly sad is that we have all the tools we need to give them that and more. All that’s missing is the political will to make it happen.

“Worsening material hardship and food insecurity isn’t just a statistic, it means more tamariki are going without the bare basics. At the same time, this report shows food insecurity is on the rise, which means more families can’t afford three meals a day. 

“This Government certainly is ‘Making a Difference for Young New Zealanders’–as they’ve titled their report–and it’s a pretty bleak one. 

“There is a clear line to be drawn between the Government’s choices and the increase in hardship being experienced by our youngest. 

“We are already seeing the harm that increasing public transport fares, gutting free prescription fees have had on children. While the Government hands $3 billion dollars in tax cuts to landlords and $12 billion to defence, it refuses to invest in ending child poverty. What is worse, their cuts to benefit increases will plunge more children into material hardship in the coming years.

“This Government is clipping every ticket they can from those already doing it tough, all while lining the pockets of their wealthy mates. It’s absolutely appalling.

“The Green Party campaigned to end poverty for all families in Aotearoa by providing everyone with an Income Guarantee that would ensure every household and every child has all they need to thrive. 

“If this Government won’t deliver for children, we will,” says Ricardo Menéndez March.

Source: Green Party

The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement.

“The Treaty Principles Bill is dead. Our movement for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice lives on,” says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. 

“Instead of dividing and conquering, this Bill has backfired and united communities across the motu in solidarity for our founding agreement and what it represents. 

“Te Tiriti o Waitangi offers us a blueprint for a future where everyone thrives and nobody is left behind, including Papatūānuku. This is the sentiment we saw in the tens of thousands who flooded the streets, we heard it in the drove of submissions to Parliament, and we can feel it in this new generation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice.

“Hapū, iwi, te Tiriti o Waitangi experts, reo Māori experts, legal experts, historians, community organisers – tangata whenua mai, tagata moana mai, tangata tiriti mai, tauiwi mai – submitted and stood in opposition to this Bill. Ninety per cent of submitters rejected this attempt to re-write our history and erase Māori from it. 

“This Government is clearly out of touch with the very essence of Aotearoa. History will judge Christopher Luxon for his lack of leadership and accountability to our founding agreement. His absence today speaks volumes.

“The vast majority of us in Aotearoa know that we are here by the mana of te Tiriti o Waitangi, and will work to protect that mana in every way we can.

“Whatungarongaro te tangata, toitū te whenua. Whatungarongaro te kāwanatanga, toitū te Tiriti o Waitangi. People will disappear, while the land remains. While governments come and go, te Tiriti o Waitangi is forever,” said Marama Davidson.