Greens: Tax the banks

Instead of creating an appeal fund and one-off lotto draw, the Labour Government could tax the billions of dollars banks have made in unearned, excess profits and use the money to support people.

Green Party announces [former Standard contributor] as candidate for Ōhāriu

“This election is a pivotal one. We have a choice between maintaining the status quo or building a bright green future for everyone in our community; between divisiveness or solidarity; between quibbling over the definition of “crisis” or taking real action to address the cost of living, housing, climate change and environmental exploitation.”

Greens: proposal to tax excess corporate profits

“An excess profit tax would be a simple and effective way for large corporations to pay their fair share, unlocking the resources all of us need to live with dignity, put a roof over our heads and food on the table,” says Green Party Finance spokesperson, Julie Anne Genter.

“Today, we have released a discussion document exploring how an excess profit tax could be designed – and how the additional revenue should be spent. We are also considering the alternative of raising company tax rates so that all profits are taxed more.”

Male privilege is a fragile thing

Golriz Ghahraman wanted Parliament to condemn the Iranian Government’s oppression of women’s rights.  David Seymour moved to block the motion because Golriz had raised points of order against him during a previous speech.  Fancy putting your hurt feelings in front of making a statement of support and principle.

Who will be Wellington’s next Mayor?

The Wellington Mayoralty is shaping up to be a contest between the incumbent Andy Foster, Labour candidate Paul Eagle who will be a direct challenge to Foster’s support base and Tory Whanau who is standing on a policy basis strong on sustainability including the construction of a comprehensive connected bike network.

Greens: New public transport model must be backed with investment

“Along with public ownership and better wages and conditions for people working on public transport, if we can get the Government to focus nearly all transport investments on making it easier for people to walk, bike, or hop on a bus, train, or ferry we can create a world-class transport system that works for everyone. The best way to do that is to get more Green MPs into Parliament,” – Julie Anne Genter.

Bastards Versus Assholes

This post was written before Gaurav Sharma’s Herald article and should not be taken as validation of his comments.  There are necessary bastards in political life, and in developed democracies compared to everywhere else ours are gentle as lambs

Really bad takes on the Green’s leadership issue

There have been some spectacularly bad takes on Green Party leadership issues by voices on the right and academia which were all shown to be spectacularly wrong after Chloe Swarbrick announced that she was not seeking the Green Party leadership.

James Shaw and the Green Party co-leadership

The tension in the Green Party is between pragmatism and the need for urgent system change.

For the public, there’s no need to panic. Dissent is valuable and healthy in politics. It sits alongside trusting that the Greens know how to manage their internal processes even if the public at large doesn’t understand them well.

 

Climate politics

Quick quiz on which New Zealand politicians led well on climate action in the past 15 years. Which New Zealand town is in a climate emergency today? And how our focus and voting matters if we want to avert climate disaster.

The battle lines for the next election

Despite Labour seeing the country through the biggest public health threat seen in the last century and despite improving numbers of houses and a reduction in child poverty some on the left are buying into National’s despair lines.  And the issues on which the next election will be fought are becoming clearer.

Plant based foods

Worrying news has emerged that New Zealand officials sought along with other agricultural nations to remove references to the benefits of consuming plant based foods on climate change from the IPCC report summary.

Greens call for rent freeze

The Green Party has published a reasonable plan to make renting more affordable for low income New Zealanders. There’s nothing extreme-communist-scary here, it’s well within the values of the NZ electorate.

The latest poll

National/Act (47%) would beat Labour/Greens (46%) if there were an election held tomorrow, according to the latest One News Kantar poll.

Chloe Swarbrick Needs A Reset

Chloe Swarbrick has requested that the government help Auckland central’s restaurants.  But in a post Covid pre climate change world this is not going to help.

Luxon under pressure after latest Newshub Poll

I am going to channel my Matthew Hooton left wing alter ego in the writing of this post.  The latest Newshub poll shows a resounding level of support for the Labour Party and there are murmurs of discontent about Chris Luxon after support for the right plummets.

The Standard’s 2021 political awards

It is that time of year where nostalgia kicks in and the desire to review current events dims.  So much has happened this year.  It has truly been twelve months of the praiseworthy and the absolutely pitiful. And it is time to reflect on the personalities who made us smile, made us frown and made us raise our eyebrows to breaking point.

Our Energy Upheaval

Ministers Wood, Shaw and Parker (Energy, Climate Change, and RMA reform respectively), must pull their eyes downward from the misty clouds of climate change and stuff multiple decades away and down into the jagged, shadowy deal-by-deal path of the transition to clean energy.

Covid and the latest polls

The results of two polls were leaked recently both showing a drop in support for Labour.  Clearly the Delta outbreak has rattled confidence.  But National has not surged up in support and the Greens have picked up some of the former Labour vote.