Opinion: Green Party will take bold action required to tackle climate change
Opinion
Kia ora, I am Julienne Dickey, the Napier Green Party candidate. Originally from Auckland, I spent much of my career in the UK as a senior manager in the disability and mental health fields, and as a management consultant working with over 100 companies and organisations. I am asking for you to Party Vote Green, as although we have made progress in the last two governments, the pace of change has been too slow. Only the Green Party will take the bold action that is required to tackle climate change, protect the environment, and rebalance wealth in New Zealand. With more Green MPs we can influence the direction of the next government towards a fairer society that works for all.
Our vision at the Green Party is to restore the climate, protect nature and build a country that works for everyone. Our plan and our solutions are based on:
• the need for urgent action on the climate and our natural heritage for future generations,
• our values, putting people before profits,
• evidence from respected sources, not populist slogans,
• dealing with the causes of problems such as ill-health and crime, focusing on prevention as well as cure,
• honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi and respecting tīkanga Māori,
• understanding that NZ has the means to provide eveyone with safe, warm, affordable homes and sufficient means to live a good life – and that doing this – or not doing it – is a political decision, not an economic one.
New Zealand is a wealthy country, but the wealth gap is huge. 311 families own more wealth than the poorest half of the population. How can that be fair, when the vast majority of the poorest half work just as hard yet often struggle to feed their families? Inequality is a political choice, and successive governments have chosen to create a system where those with wealth accumulate more and more, but their effective tax liability is less than half the standard tax rate. This increasing inequality of wealth has consequences in health, housing, crime and education.
The Green Party will introduce a fairer, more progressive tax system including a wealth tax and tax on corporate profits. We will simplify the benefit system with an income guarantee of $385 per week, a $10,000 tax-free threshold for all, free dental care for all, a limit of 3% rent increase p.a., and increased disability benefits. 95% of New Zealanders will be better off than with National’s tax cuts, which will benefit the most wealthy, especially large landlords, and others hardly at all.
We will scale up Kāinga Ora housing way beyond that promised by the other parties, progressively expand public health services rather than rely on private providers, reform the justice system to focus more on prevention and rehabilitation, treat drug addiction as a health issue rather than a criminal one, and make sure almost all new buidings are accessible.
We support Māori-led initiatives to provide solutions to the on-going inequalities faced by Māori, rather than continuing to rely on the one-size-fits-all approach which hasn’t worked. We saw the effectiveness of Māori-led actions in dramatically increasing Covid vaccinations. For this reason we will support the Māori Health Authority, to give it time to prove its effectiveness in advising on policies and strategies, developing the Māori health workforce, enhancing tino rangatiratanga and commissioning kaupapa Māori services. This will benefit all New Zealanders. When Māori do well, we all do well.
On the climate and the environment we have a raft of measures for reducing carbon emissions and implementing mitigation actions necessary to minimise the impact of severe weather events. We have a host of initiatives for restoring our degraded environment and ecosystems, cleaning up our waterways, protecting our native species and increasing biodiversity.
All our policies can be explored on www.greens.org.nz.
A National/ACT and possibly NZ First government will not improve the lives of most New Zealanders, but will take us backwards on social equality, the climate and the environment.
We can create a society where everyone has the opportunity to flourish. We can protect our natural environment and our precious native species. We can do our best to reduce the existential threat of the climate crisis.
So... Party Vote Green! The time is now!
* Julienne Dickey is the Green Party Candidate for Napier. Candidates in the Napier electorate have the opportunity to submit an opinion piece for publication. All views expressed here are Julienne Dickey’s and not those of Hawke’s Bay App.
