Category: New Zealand Legislature

Source: Green Party

The Government has passed legislation to remove agriculture from the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) while Aotearoa’s reputation on climate action plummets. 

“While our Climate Minister is on the other side of the world telling the UN climate conference about the need to act, at home, his Government is ramming through law to delay and deny that very action,” says Green Party Co-Leader and spokesperson for Climate Change, Chlöe Swarbrick, who is currently attending COP29. 

“The world isn’t stupid – and that’s why this Government’s choices are seeing us slip down the ranks. 

“The Climate Change Performance Index points out the 2023 change of government and its policy decisions are why New Zealand is tumbling down the global climate rankings. Whether it’s the repeal of the oil and gas ban or kicking the can down the road on agricultural emissions, Luxon’s Government is denying science and leadership. 

“This is a national embarrassment, global disgrace and existential threat. 

“The Government can’t farm its responsibility out to unproven technology – unicorn kisses, as one of their own Ministers likes to talk about – and ‘the market’, which their own advice says will cost lowest income New Zealanders four times as much as the wealthiest.

“This fight is no longer about a faraway future, but our world today. The good news is New Zealanders are refusing to have the wool pulled over their eyes on this Government’s regressive agenda and are connecting the dots.

“Climate justice is Te Tiriti justice is economic justice.

“We can have meaningful action that reduces emissions and the cost of living while improving all of our lives.

“Christopher Luxon’s Government is relying on people’s exhaustion and disenfranchisement – and as the mobilising in the last week is proving, New Zealanders are starting to roundly reject that strategy,” says Chlöe Swarbrick. 

Source: Green Party

As legislation to set up boot camps passed its first reading, the Green Party urged the Government to abandon this failed policy experiment for the good of our rangatahi.

“We risk repeating a shameful part of our history and ruining the lives of our rangatahi by bringing back boot camps,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for Justice, Tamatha Paul.

“Our rangatahi need and deserve opportunities and support through their formative years so they can realise their full potential. 

“Boot camps are simply another shallow attempt by this Government to win votes by appearing tough on crime at the expense of our communities. We know from past iterations of boot camps that they fail to help rangatahi turn their lives around and instead make things worse. Yet this Government is ploughing on anyway. 

“The red flags around the boot camp policy are alarming, including a lack of safeguards around its military-style settings and the fact this legislation is being introduced before the pilot has even been evaluated. Just today we learnt that one young person in the pilot may have reoffended. This shows the shortcomings of this military-style approach. 

“Have we not learnt anything from the Royal Inquiry into Abuse in State Care? There was a whole chapter on boot camps. Children endured horrendous abuse at the hands of people who were supposed to be protecting them.

“The Government apologised this month for abuse in state care but has ignored the resounding call from survivors to close the bootcamps. This makes that apology empty. 

“The vast majority of young people who end up in the youth justice system have faced abuse or serious neglect, with backgrounds of trauma, poverty, mental health problems, learning disabilities and lack of support. 

“We know what works for youth crime because we’ve done it before. Community wrap-around support services for at-risk youth were working well to reduce repeat offending before the Government cut their contracts,” says Tamatha Paul.

Source: Green Party

The Ministry of Health has today released an evidence brief regarding the use of puberty blockers in gender-affirming healthcare, amid moves by the government to limit access. 

“Trans rights are human rights and our trans whānau deserve access to critical healthcare,” says Green Party spokesperson for Rainbow Communities, Kahurangi Carter.

“Today, ACT have espoused some incredibly transphobic rhetoric that aims to cause harm and division. We need to do better for our young people than spread misinformation and resort to scare tactics.

“At the end of the day, the Ministry’s position statement reaffirms what should be expected of all medical treatments and outlines how gender-affirming care is already delivered –‘an interprofessional team offering a full range of supports to young people presenting with gender identity issues.’

“This position statement highlights the importance of comprehensive care for those navigating these complex and personal decisions.

“However, meaningful action must go beyond statements. New Zealand urgently needs to resource and promote clear pathways for timely, free, and non-discriminatory access to all forms of gender-affirming healthcare. 

“That care must centre informed consent and self-determination, ensuring that every young person has the support they need to thrive.

“Attempts to limit access to gender-affirming care risk undermining the well-being of trans and non-binary youth, whose voices and experiences have been clear: affirming care saves lives.

“New Zealand has an opportunity to lead with compassion and evidence. What’s needed now is a commitment to support our rainbow communities by delivering equitable, accessible healthcare based on science and empathy—not political posturing,” says Kahurangi Carter.

Source: Green Party

The Government is turning its back on children by not only weakening child poverty reduction targets, but also removing child mental wellbeing as a priority focus in their Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy. 

“Poverty is a political choice, one that this Government is choosing for our children,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for Child Poverty Reduction, Ricardo Menéndez March. 

“Every child deserves to get the possible start in life. We can and we must eliminate child poverty. The good news is that we have the resources to make this happen. The bad news is that this Government doesn’t care. 

“The Government has decided to turn its back on our children by watering down its child poverty targets and now by removing child mental wellbeing as a priority focus. Louise Upston’s justification for this is a joke, but child poverty is no laughing matter. 

“It is ridiculous for Minister Upston to justify removing child mental wellbeing as a priority focus because she wants to address material hardship when she is doing the exact opposite. She is making matters worse. 

“The prevalence of mould and damp in houses as well as food insecurity have also been removed from child poverty-related indicators. This strategy is shallow and shameful. 

“This Government believes what gets measured is what matters. Their changes to the child poverty-related indicators could have children going hungry and living in terrible housing while showing up as fine in their new measures. This is blatant cruelty. 

“Minister Upston and her colleagues in cruelty have chosen to allow more children to live in poverty by cutting benefit increases, removing public transport and prescription subsidies and slowing down the building of public housing. 

“Instead of shifting the goalposts and watering down our targets, the Government needs to commit to taking child poverty seriously. We cannot afford to allow more and more children every year to fall into poverty, our children deserve so much better from us.   

“The Green Party would guarantee liveable incomes for whanau, while investing in the support networks that communities need to ensure children have all their rights met – even when times are tough,” says Ricardo Menéndez March.

Source: Green Party

The Government has taken a giant step backwards by reinstating live animal exports. 

“This decision is cruel and cuts against the grain of our values as a nation,” says the Green Party’s Animal Welfare spokesperson, Steve Abel.

“Animals deserve a life free from suffering. Harmful practices that put profit ahead of their welfare are unacceptable.

“The reality is that live export, by its nature, cannot uphold any such standards, and this move contravenes both the spirit and the letter of New Zealand’s own Animal Welfare Act. 

“Leading animal welfare organisations and experts have long condemned live exports due to the appalling conditions animals endure during transit, their uncertain fate upon arrival in countries with far lower welfare standards than we would accept here, and the repeated sinkings which have claimed the lives of crew and thousands of animals.

“New Zealanders were promised a transparent submissions process to discuss the trade’s future. Instead, the Government opted for limited, “targeted engagement,” largely behind closed doors, effectively silencing widespread opposition. This is policymaking by stealth.

“The rest of the world is moving away from live export of farmed animals, with bans recently announced in the UK and Australia. Doubling down on a practice widely viewed as cruel and archaic is a severe step backwards.

“How can the Government claim to respect animal welfare when it is willing to subject animals to such prolonged suffering for profit? On every level, it’s a national disgrace.

“This government has bought into the industry spin of ‘gold-standards’. The only certainty for animal welfare is keeping the ban on live exports. This is something we will continue to fight for,” says Steve Abel.

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

• The majority of New Zealanders oppose the resumption of this trade. A survey of the New Zealand public commissioned by SPCA found that only 19 per cent of respondents thought the ban should be overturned. Not even farmers want it back–56 per cent of farmers supported keeping the ban in place.
• The hard won ban took effect in April, 2023.
• In the years immediately preceding the New Zealand live export ban, there were two large live export disasters: 

• 1. 2022: New Zealand, 12,300 cattle; MV Al Kuwait. Ship broke down enroute to pick up cattle waiting in pre-export isolation – cattle stranded and welfare problems reported

• 1. 2020: New Zealand; 6,000 pregnant cows; Gulf Livestock 1. Ship capsized – death by drowning