Latest news with #ChlöeSwarbrick
Scoop
6 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
Greens Show Willis' Fiscal Straight-Jacket Is Junk, Validate Case For Strong Public Investment
The Green Party has released its fiscal strategy, demonstrating how we can and must invest in the real-world needs of our country, planet and people. 'New Zealanders deserve a Government that actually governs our economy for the good of all of us. Unfortunately, what we have got at the moment is a Government fixated on self-made constraints while the real world crumbles around us,' says Green Party co-leader and spokesperson for Finance, Chlöe Swarbrick. 'Last month, our Green Budget showed that a better world is possible. We can rapidly reduce climate-changing emissions, invest in free GP visits, free dental care, free early childhood education and so much more. 'Our Fiscal Strategy unpicks the daft 'computer says no' argument standing in the way of this critical investment. We show how forty years of bad fiscal programming have produced devastating real-world results as our hospitals, schools and infrastructure fall apart. 'We are proud to be setting the economic agenda with a clear, credible plan to build the country New Zealanders want to fight for, instead of leaving in record numbers. 'Our Green Budget, Industrial Strategy and Fiscal Strategy form the most comprehensive, real-world, evidence-based economic policy of any party in Parliament. They constitute the only serious plan to actually improve our economic and climate resilience and create tens of thousands of good green jobs. 'Let the Government's latest round of name-calling ensue. We'll continue to do the work to show New Zealanders how we can build the country we all deserve,' says Chlöe Swarbrick.
RNZ News
6 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Greens release fiscal strategy that calls for more public investment
Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick says 40 years of bad fiscal programming have produced "devastating real-world results". Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone The Greens have made a case for more public investment, as they releases the party's fiscal strategy on Tuesday, saying the Finance Minister's "fiscal straight-jacket is junk". Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the current government was "fixated on self-made constraints, while the real world crumbles around us". Following the release of its Green Budget last month, which was ridiculed by the coalition , the party has released a discussion document outlining its case for a "transformed approach" to fiscal management it says would prioritise "real fiscal sustainability". The co-leaders' foreword in the report said "if balancing the books can only be achieved by reducing our real economic capacity, then the books need to be rewritten". Swarbrick said the party's fiscal strategy unpicked the daft 'computer says no' argument standing in the way of this critical investment. "We show how 40 years of bad fiscal programming have produced devastating real-world results, as our hospitals, schools and infrastructure fall apart." The document "demands recognition" that both excessive debt and insufficient investment are "equally unsustainable". It also said a "neoliberal logic" was embedded throughout New Zealand's fiscal management framework. "However, the neoliberal prescription of privatisation, public-private partnerships and market liberalisation isn't just outdated - it's actively harming our ability to meet long-term needs." It referenced the fiscal responsibility rules introduced in the 1980s as serving a legitimate purpose then, where constraints on borrowing and spending were an "urgent necessity", because the government had come close to defaulting on its debts. "However, our emergency response to that debt crisis has become permanent policy and, for over 40 years, our fiscal culture has focused solely on the prevention of one type of crisis, while systematically creating others through chronic underinvestment." The strategy document said political leaders called for ever-tighter fiscal restraint, and reminded voters of "rainy days" to come and the vulnerability of New Zealand's small open economy to natural disasters. "However, investment to mitigate these vulnerabilities is only ever seen as a cost, while the vulnerabilities created by weakened public services are made to appear inevitable, rather than as political decisions." The party argued public investment could enhance economic development, productivity and resilience, that would then improve, rather than undermine the country's long-term fiscal sustainability. It also said the costs of underinvestment in things like infrastructure, climate resilience and human capital posed risks "as significant" as excessive debt. "Both debt in excess of our real economic capacity to deliver investment and chronic underinvestment are failures of fiscal responsibility," the report said. It said real economic constraints should guide investment decisions, rather than financial targets "divorced from their economic implications". Responsible increases in public debt should be supported by "funding strategies", the paper went on, that "strengthen domestic financial institutions to hold that debt". "We need to ensure that productive borrowing serves Aotearoa New Zealand's development, while maintaining greater economic sovereignty." It argued this framework would enable the country to build enduring resilience to growing economic and environmental shocks, and create truly sustainable prosperity. The party believed the current accounting-driven approach failed to acknowledge public investment in human, social and natural capital. Swarbrick welcomed criticism, saying "let the government's latest round of name-calling ensue", but said the Greens were providing the most "comprehensive, real-world, evidence-based economic policy" of any party in parliament. "They constitute the only serious plan to actually improve our economic and climate resilience, and create tens of thousands of good green jobs." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
11-06-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
New Zealand's sanctions on Israel too little, too late
Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has since December been urging the coalition to back her bill imposing economic sanctions on Israel. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Opposition parties say the government should be going much further, much faster in sanctioning Israel. New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters overnight revealed New Zealand had joined Australia, Canada, the UK and Norway in imposing travel bans on Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Some of the partner countries went further, adding asset freezes and business restrictions on the far-right ministers. Peters said the pair had used their leadership positions to actively undermine peace and security and remove prospects for a two-state solution. Israel and the United States criticised the sanctions, with the US saying it undermined progress towards a ceasefire. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, attending Fieldays in Waikato, told reporters New Zealand still enjoyed a good relationship with the US administration, but would not be backing down. "We have a view that this is the right course of action for us," he said. "We have differences in approach but the Americans are doing an excellent job of behind the scenes trying to get Israel and the Palestinians to the table to talk about a ceasefire." Asked if there could be further sanctions, Luxon said the government was "monitoring the situation all the time". Peters has been busy travelling in Europe and was unavailable to be interviewed. ACT - probably the most vocally pro-Israel party in Parliament - refused to comment on the situation. The opposition parties also backed the move, but argued the government should have gone much further. Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has since December been urging the coalition to back her bill imposing economic sanctions on Israel. With support from Labour and Te Pāti Māori it would need just six MPs to cross the floor to pass. Calling the Israeli actions in Gaza "genocide", she told RNZ the government's sanctions fell far short of those imposed on Russia. "This is symbolic, and it's unfortunate that it's taken so long to get to this point, nearly two years ... the Minister of Foreign Affairs also invoked the similarities with Russia in his statement this morning, yet we have seen far less harsh sanctions applied to Israel. "We're well past the time for first steps." The push-back from the US was "probably precisely part of the reason that our government has been so scared of doing the right thing", she said, calling it cowardice on the government's part. "What else are you supposed to call it at the end of the day?," she said, saying at a bare minimum the Israeli ambassador should be expelled, Palestinian statehood should be recognised, and a special category of visas for Palestinians should be introduced. She rejected categorisation of her stance as anti-semitic, saying that made no sense. "If we are critiquing a government of a certain country, that is not the same thing as critiquing the people of that country. I think it's actually far more anti-semitic to conflate the actions of the Israeli government with the entire Jewish peoples." Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says "it's not a war, it's an annihilation". Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said the sanctions were political hypocrisy. "When it comes to war, human rights and the extent of violence and genocide that we're seeing, Palestine is its own independent nation ... why is this government sanctioning only two ministers? They should be sanctioning the whole of Israel. "These two Israel far right ministers don't act alone. They belong to an entire Israel government which has used its military might and everything it can possibly do to bombard, to murder and to commit genocide and occupy Gaza and the West Bank." She also wanted all diplomatic ties with Israel suspended, along with sanctions against Israeli companies, military officials and additional support for the international courts - also saying the government should have done more. "This government has been doing everything to do nothing ... to appease allies that have dangerously overstepped unjustifiable marks, and they should not be silent. "It's not a war, it's an annihilation, it's an absolute annihilation of human beings ... we're way out there supporting those allies that are helping to weaponise Israel and the flattening and the continual cruel occupation of a nation, and it's just nothing that I thought in my living days I'd be witnessing." She said the government should be pushing back against "a very polarised, very Trump attitude" to the conflict. "Trumpism has arrived in Aotearoa ... and we continue to go down that line, that is a really frightening part for this beautiful nation of ours. "As a nation, we have a different set of values. We're a Pacific-based country with a long history of going against the grain - the mainstream, easy grind. We've been a peaceful, loving nation that stood up against the big boys when it came to our anti nuclear stance and that's our role in this, our role is not to follow blindly." In a statement, Labour's foreign affairs spokesperson Peeni Henare said the actions of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir had attempted to undermine the two-state solution and international law, and described the situation in Gaza as horrific. "The travel bans echo the sanctions placed on Russian individuals and organisations that supported the illegal invasion of Ukraine," he said. He called for further action. "Labour has been calling for stronger action from the government on Israel's invasion of Gaza, including intervening in South Africa's case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, creation of a special visa for family members of New Zealanders fleeing Gaza, and ending government procurement from companies operating illegally in the Occupied Territories." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Herald
11-06-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
NBR Rich List reignites wealth tax debate as Act's Karen Chhour squares off against Chlöe Swarbrick
The wealth tax debate has been reignited the same week the National Business Review released its annual Rich List, a celebration of New Zealand's wealthiest. Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick and Act Minister Karen Chhour were on Herald NOW this morning to discuss taxing the rich. Swarbrick said it was a
Scoop
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Government Rightfully Sued Over Illegal Climate ‘Plan'
Press Release – Green Party Christopher Luxon has spent the better part of two years telling the country everything is fine while he dismantles effective climate policy, gives handouts to the fossil fuel sector and platforms lobbyists pseudoscience on agricultural emissions. Last week, world-leading climate scientists called out the Government's approach to agricultural emissions. This week, climate lawyers have sued the Government because its Emissions Reductions Plans do not add up. 'Luxon's Government has chosen to pour oil, coal and gas on the climate crisis fire. Their climate 'plan' is not worth the paper it is written on. That's why they're being sued today,' says the Green Party's co-leader and spokesperson for climate change, Chlöe Swarbrick. 'I called it a demonstrable lie when the Prime Minister told Parliament in December 2023 that he wasn't weakening actions on climate – while he was actively weakening actions on climate. It was and remains a demonstrable lie. This is the first leg of the legal case. 'The Luxon Government's second Emissions Reduction Plan relies on unproven, economically unfeasible technologies and plastering our country in pine trees. This is the second leg of the legal case. 'Christopher Luxon has spent the better part of two years telling the country everything is fine while he dismantles effective climate policy, gives handouts to the fossil fuel sector and platforms lobbyist's pseudoscience on agricultural emissions. This would be a meme – a joke – if it wasn't so serious. 'The Greens have shown we can reduce climate-changing emissions five times faster than the Government's 'plan,' while reducing the cost of living and improving our quality of life. 'New Zealanders deserve so much better than this Government taking them for chumps,' says Chlöe Swarbrick.
