Archive for November, 2011

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  A broken promise by National before a Government is even formed - by frog

  
  
  
  Here’s the National Party’s Minister of Conservation, in response to Green MP Kevin Hague’s question in Parliament a couple of months ago: Kevin Hague: Does the Minister agree with the resource consent commissioners when they said “it is abundantly clear that large scale mining is poised to invade the entire Denniston Plateau coal reserves which [...] read more
  November 30, 2011 6:38 pm - 18 Comments
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  Fiddling in Durban: COP 17 and the minor issue of climate change - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  The NZ election is out of the way and we are all suddenly busy in Wellington setting ourselves up for the 50th Parliament. Asset sales, tax reform, benefits, superannuation, debt, the privacy of a public cup of tea – have riveted us for the past month or so – straight after the rugby. In the [...] read more
  November 30, 2011 9:42 am - 30 Comments
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  Spectacular Green success in the Māori electorates - by frog

  
  
  
  One of the great 2011 electoral success stories for the Green Party has been in the Māori electorates. In all seven Māori electorates the Greens’ share of the party vote has at least doubled and in two, Waiariki and Te Tai Hauāuru, has more than tripled. read more
  November 30, 2011 8:57 am - 18 Comments
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  Where the Greens are tops - by frog

  
  
  
  Here is the list of booths where the Green Party came first.  We won the Party Vote in at least 26 places around the country. I have excluded very small booths like Arthurs Pass (we won with 19 votes) and Okiwi (10 was enough for first place).  In fact I’ve excluded any booth where under [...] read more
  November 29, 2011 8:02 pm - 10 Comments
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  General debate, November 29, 2011 - by frog

  
  
  
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  November 29, 2011 8:24 am - 140 Comments
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  Thanks for voting Green! - by frog

  
  
  
  It was amazing to watch the votes coming in from around the country on Election Day. We received 10.62% of the vote, which means that we can bring at least 13 Green MPs into Parliament. So a big welcome to Eugenie Sage, Jan Logie, Steffan Browning, Denise Roche, Holly Walker, and Julie Anne Genter. There [...] read more
  November 28, 2011 11:35 am - 76 Comments
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  Make history tomorrow: vote Green - by Metiria Turei

  
  
  
  It is election day eve and the Green Party has been polling at record highs over the past few weeks. We need your help to turn those polls into seats in Parliament. You can make history tomorrow and get more Green MPs than ever before. A vote for the Greens is a vote for a [...] read more
  November 25, 2011 6:00 pm - 11 Comments
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  Toxic Legacies Need Serious Leadership - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  The arsenic issues effecting Moanataiari, a small subdivision in my home town of Thames, are part of the very challenging reality of our not so “clean green” country. That is why I challenged the Minister for the Environment to establish a national register of contaminated sites. This led to the work we are doing on [...] read more
  November 25, 2011 3:23 pm - 1 Comment
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  Bringing Parliament to the people - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  Thanks to social media, it’s much easier for people in the community to engage with their politicians. Instead of holding their hands up in long town hall meetings, they can just log in to Facebook or Twitter and tap a few keys. This is why we at the Green Party take social media seriously. It’s [...] read more
  November 25, 2011 12:46 pm - 4 Comments
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  High time to eliminate violence against women - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Amnesty International begin its sixteen days of activism against gender-based violence, with events happening all over the country. This year there’s a focus on calling on the Solomon Islands to enact laws to protect women from violence, and working to defend Norma Cruz, [...] read more
  November 25, 2011 10:38 am - 5 Comments
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  General debate, November 25, 2011 - by frog

  
  
  
  Just one more sleep… read more
  November 25, 2011 9:15 am - 99 Comments
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  National’s Unhelpful Education Policy - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  The National Party’s education policy launched yesterday lacks a vision for quality public education. Threatening to punish “low performing schools” and reward “high performance”  is a dangerous, divisive and elitist approach to our public education system. The policy is about continuing to enforce Nationals Standards, which are the central failure in education of the last [...] read more
  November 23, 2011 4:02 pm - 36 Comments
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  Greens answer the hard questions on freshwater management - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  The Green Party recently received an open letter to politicians and the New Zealand public regarding freshwater management in New Zealand. The letter addressed some of the more difficult questions surrounding freshwater management, which came out of the “Reimagining Freshwater Geographies” workshop recently held at the University of Auckland and attended by 34 environmental and [...] read more
  November 22, 2011 2:52 pm - 4 Comments
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  Odds against women in the Pay Equity Wheel of Fortune - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  On Saturday, I went to the Grey Lynn festival to talk to people about our women’s policy, and draw attention to the inequities between women and men when it comes to paid work. We invited festival goers to spin the Pay Equity Wheel of Fortune – Show Me The Money! read more
  November 22, 2011 12:43 pm - 12 Comments
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  General debate, November 19, 2011 - by frog

  
  
  
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  November 19, 2011 8:22 am - 316 Comments
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  Coromandel Watch Frog: Protecting our endangered amphibians - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  In between a candidate meeting and a cottage meeting, door knocking and radio interviews, I managed to squeeze in a fantastic event organised by Whangamata Earthwatch and Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki. The groups invited Phil Bishop, Chief Scientist for IUCN Amphibian Survival Alliance to come and speak  in Whangamata on a Sunday morning and at [...] read more
  November 17, 2011 9:02 am - 5 Comments
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  Dairy compliance message is failing - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  Bay of Plenty Regional Council recently expressed their concern that some dairy operators are still not getting the message that it’s not okay to pollute NZ’s waterways with effluent. There have been eight prosecutions in the past year in the Bay of Plenty regarding breaches of dairy effluent disposal rules and conditions. This is eight [...] read more
  November 14, 2011 1:10 pm - 40 Comments
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  General debate, November 12, 2011 - by frog

  
  
  
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  November 12, 2011 7:08 am - 364 Comments
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  Dams will damn our rivers - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  Fed Farmers have welcomed National’s $400 million water storage and irrigation investment announced yesterday. Of course Fed Farmers would. Damming rivers to store water for irrigation means farmers can convert more land to dairying, which is highly profitable at the moment. But Fed Farmers pretend that damming rivers to store water for irrigation won’t hurt [...] read more
  November 10, 2011 2:10 pm - 45 Comments
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  Te Reo – The First National Language - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  The Maori Party announced a policy today that Te Reo should be available in all schools. We agree as this has been our policy for some time. We also agree it would take conscious capacity building to achieve this. Labour say there could be a backlash which I think is an unfortunate stance. The way [...] read more
  November 10, 2011 11:35 am - 28 Comments