June 10, 2009
· Filed under SuperCity
You have one chance to have your say on Auckland’s future. With our Submission Guide, it will take one hour or less to make your voice heard.
Among the things at stake are $23 billion of our shared assets; if even one is privatised, we are unlikely to ever get it back.
We hear just one voice at the moment: Rodney Hide telling us that local government is only about footpaths, rubbish collection and ‘targeted consultation’.
This is your chance to remind him that it’s also about communities and services such as playgrounds and parks or libraries and museums, and to remind him that it’s about democratic local government representing all Aucklanders.
Have your say about how Auckland is governed; use the Submission Guide and email or post your views today.
Thank you for making democracy work!
Sue Kedgley MP, Green Party Local Government Spokesperson
Sue Bradford MP, Green Party Auckland Issues Spokesperson
April 7, 2009
· Filed under Climate Change, Energy
The Green Party expects the Government’s ‘polar bear hunt’ to close in for the kill at the Ministry for the Environment tomorrow, culling initiatives that have saved the taxpayer money.
Ministry for the Environment staff have been called to a presentation Tuesday afternoon at Environment House to hear the final restructuring plans.
“While global leaders roll out Green New Deal initiatives to generate jobs and address climate change at the same time, our Prime Minister seems intent on swimming against the tide,”
said Green Party Co-Leader Dr Russel Norman.
“The Government’s plans to cut sustainability programmes that have helped the environment and the tax-payer does not reflect well on this Government’s so-called ‘Blue-Green’ agenda.”
Recently, the Prime Minister called the sustainability programmes “hug a polar bear” initiatives; meanwhile his own Environment Minister admitted in a parliamentary question that the now-culled Govt3 sustainability programmes had resulted in savings of $4.7 million.
Dr Norman said,
“The financial review of the Inland Revenue Department revealed that it made a profit from Govt3 sustainability initiatives last year, cutting energy and travel spending by over one million dollars.
“The IRD savings show that environmental efficiency goes hand-in-hand with economic efficiency, benefiting the tax-payer and the environment for years to come.
“The Government should roll out these programmes across the whole public sector and save more money, as well as protect our multi-billion dollar ‘clean green brand’.”
Dr Norman concluded,
“Tomorrow’s presentation will confirm that sustainability initiatives have been restructured into extinction, following hard on the heels of the Finance Minister deflating the tyres on the Government’s sole ‘environmental’ Job Summit initiative, the national cycleway.”
