frogblog

Formerly the Minimum Wage (Abolition of Age Discrimination) Amendment Bill.
Sue’s Bill has passed - Here’s her speech at the third and final reading - or you can listen to it.
It wasn’t the whole kittenkaboodle that Sue’s original Bill hoped for, but it is huge step forwards. The Maori Party stuck to their guns and opposed […]

I discussed the question of ringfencing the losses from rental housing on Morning Report yesterday - tax changes for investments (mp3, 2.7mb, Morning Report, RNZ) .
Cullen refused to front up to the discussion but I think it’s important that we discuss it. Housing prices have doubled in six years and it is a big social […]

Haven’t had an audioblog for ages, and Metiria delivered an excellent speech on the Maori Purposes Bill in Parliament last week, so it seemed like a good time. You can download the speech as an mp3, or listen to it streamed.
It’s definitely worth checking out. She uses material from The Hollow Men to attack both […]

Just announced.
UPDATE: you can read or listen to Russel’s co-leader speech.
UPDATE 2: as some commenters have pointed out, Russel’s co-leader speech should really be considered in tandem with Jeanette’s co-leader speech which proceeded it. You can read or listen to it as well.
UPDATE 3: there was some major press attention of the two co-leader speeches, […]

NZ First MP Barbara Stewart’s Bill to reduce the number of MPs to 100 got its first reading in Parliament this week, and received enough votes to send it through to the select committee stage. The Greens were among the parties voting against the Bill, largely because of the detrimental effect it would have on […]

Conservation Minister Chris Carter’s decision to decline resource consent for the controversial marina at Whangamata has been widely covered in the media in the last week or so, and widely debated. For the most part though, the coverage has lacked detail and has had a generally hysterical tone.
Metiria injected some perspective when she spoke in […]

Jeanette and the Greens were pleased yesterday with Conservation Minister Chris Carter’s decision to use his statutory right and decline consent for the controversial Whangamata Marina, which would have gone against the wishes of local iwi and harbour users and destroyed an ecologically valuable salt marsh. (Others were not so pleased, as this TVNZ clip […]

Sue B’s Minimum Wage (Abolition of Age Discrimination) Amendment Bill was drawn from the parliamentary ballot yesterday.
In this interview (mp3, 0.8MB, 4′30″), Sue explains why the Greens oppose youth rates.

Nandor was yesterday appointed as the Green Party’s Environment Spokesperson.
In this interview (mp3, 1.3MB, 7′40″), he talks about the challenge of his new role, resuming his work in the Justice portfolio and letting go of the drug law reform area.

Metiria has taken on the role of ‘musterer’ for the Greens, though with the ‘whips’ role in mind she says she would prefer to be known as the ‘Mistress’.
She has also landed a new swag of portfolios, including Conservation and Tertiary. In this interview (MP3, 1.0MB, 6:00 min) Met talks about these new […]