Metiria Turei Speech To The Green Party AGM: Setting The Agenda

Excerpts
On leading change outside of Government
...The most famous example is how we helped change the agenda around genetic engineering. The issue galvanised New Zealanders and helped put our Party in Parliament. And from Parliament, we continue to lead change on a range of issues.

You may recall that when I first spoke to you as Co-leader at last year’s Conference, I announced that we would go public with our MPs’ expenses: what we spend on travel and accommodation….I said that in June 2009. By July the other parties had indeed been forced to follow. Now, all MPs are more accountable to the public of New Zealand. For 20 years we have lead change that makes sure New Zealand looks after its environment and we have lead change that promotes honest politics.

On the Government's plans to mine National Parks
It has become clear that John’s agenda was to mine most of our National Parks, but his agenda has changed because of us, the Green Party and the thousands of New Zealanders who have joined with us.
We brought John’s mining plans to the public’s attention. Last August we challenged the claim that it was just a “stock take”. In October, we revealed that the “stock take” included Mt Aspiring National Park, among others.

In December we dismantled John’s fallacious economic argument. We showed that miniscule mining royalties are not worth more than the damage to our economy, worth more than our pride, worth more than our sense of place and identity.

By February of this year, we had forced the Government to change its agenda. We had forced them to scale back their mining madness.

And the pressure continues to mount. Tens of thousands of New Zealanders marched through the streets of Auckland. Thousands of New Zealanders made submissions to the Government. We know that 40,000 New Zealanders signed the Green Party petition against mining our treasured places. And thank you to all of you for your incredible work….We will prevail. New Zealanders believe in their hearts and know with their heads what is most important. These are National Parks not National’s Parks.

On promoting equality in New Zealand
Our work on promoting income equality is to remind New Zealand that every Budget is about choice. Every Budget is about priorities; who gets and who gives, who wins and who loses.

John Key made a choice when he raised the minimum wage by only 25 cents. It was a choice to give a billion dollar subsidy to business…(and) John has chosen to give the biggest tax cuts to the wealthiest. So that’s the choice: a lot for those with the most and just a little for those with the least.

Now, we released our ‘Mind the Gap’ plan on a Monday, the Government released its Budget on a Thursday, and by the Sunday, Finance Minister Bill English was facing questions about the Budget and inequality.

….‘Mind the Gap’ presents eight practical steps we can take to reduce income inequality. It is a start and it shows us that we can do it. We can have a society where everyone has a fair go. Inequality hurts everyone in New Zealand, rich and poor. Inequality lowers life expectancy no matter how much you earn. It increases obesity no matter how much you earn. It fills our hospitals and our prisons and we all pay those bills, no matter how much we earn. So the smart move is to focus on reducing the gap between the haves and the have-nots, so that we are all better off.

Full Text
Whakarongo ake au ki te tangi a te manu
E rere runga rawa e tui tui tui tui a
Tuia i runga, tuia i raro
Tuia i roto, tuia i waho
Tui tui tuia
Kia rongo te ao, kia rongo te pō
Tui tui tuia

I listen, I listen where up high a bird flies, its cry rings out
Sew and stitch and bind it together
From above from below, from within from outside
Sew and bind it together
During the day and during the night
Sew and stitch and bind it together

It is good to be with you all again.

I want first to acknowledge the death of Bevan Tipene Matua. It is poignant that our first gathering after his death is here in Ōtautahi, where we first got to know him. He was my friend and a passionate Green. We remember him with a smile for the laughs and with real sadness at being taken from his whānau and from us so young.

He was a staunch supporter of the Greens and the Māori Party. He saw little difference between us because he saw no separation between his commitment to his whānau and his whenua.

He believed whānau and whenua were the same, to be cherished, respected, nurtured. He knew that it was through whenua and whānau that he and all he believed in would endure. Through his tikanga, he bound together whānau and whenua.

And this we all do, in our commitment to this great Green kaupapa. We too sew and stitch and bind together whānau and whenua.

And that’s what I want to talk to you about today.

GREEN LEADERSHIP
A year ago, on becoming your Co-leader, I promised you new energy dedicated to the same Green Party values.

Today I want to celebrate some of the success of the last year because it shows that, while the Green Party’s leaders have changed, the Green Party’s leadership remains the same.

What I mean is that the Green Party offers New Zealand a different kind of leadership.

You have an incredible team of MPs. You have a team of nine MPs whose leadership, collectively and individually helps to set the political agenda.

Sue Kedgley continues to fight for the youngest and the oldest of New Zealand’s citizens with her 16,000 signature petition to reinstate school food guidelines and her leading of an investigation into aged care, working closely with Grey Power and the Nurses’ Union and the Labour Party.

Keith Locke put John Key on the back foot over SAS forces in Afghanistan, was a key supporter for the Waihopai protesters and hosted the very successful tour of Rebiya Kadeer. He continues to work for human rights in his campaign against the Search and Surveillance Bill.

Kevin Hague works hard as a strategist in the caucus, has lead the work on the Green New Deal and is growing our expertise in public health. He has also been the strongest advocate for conservation, continuing the work to protect the Mokihinui River from a dam and working hard to implement aspects of the Green New Deal around ground-based pest control.

We have had the advantage of Catherine Delahunty’s expertise on the clean up of toxic sites, fighting the importation of illegally logged wood products and standing with Coromandel against the plans to mine. And Catherine’s passion for disability issues has been widely acknowledged by the community sector who see her as their champion.

Kennedy Graham has pursued the serious international issue of non-aggression and the lawful use of force. The importance of this issue has been made plain with the gross and tragic assault on the peaceful aid flotilla off the coast of Gaza.

Dave Clendon has worked to support the human rights of prisoners, victims and prison officers alike and fought the good fight over the Auckland Supercity. Meanwhile he maintains those crucial links with the business community.

Gareth Hughes has lead the opposition to any return to commercial whaling with his tour around New Zealand with International Law Professor Donald Rothwell, challenging the Government on international legal solutions and supporting detained Kiwi activist Pete Bethune.

This is the work of your current MPs. They continue the work and the leadership that the Green Party has been showing for more than 20 years now.

We are able to be an effective parliamentary team because Green Party members rally friends and family, organise and speak out. And collectively, we shape the agenda.

The most famous example is how we helped change the agenda around genetic engineering. The issue galvanised New Zealanders and helped put our Party in Parliament. And from Parliament, we continue to lead change on a range of issues.

You may recall that when I first spoke to you as Co-leader at last year’s Conference, I announced that we would go public with our MPs’ expenses: what we spend on travel and accommodation.

At the time I said: “We are the first political party to make this commitment to transparency and we hope that the others will follow suit.”

I said that in June 2009. By July the other parties had indeed been forced to follow. Now, all MPs are more accountable to the public of New Zealand.

For 20 years we have lead change that makes sure New Zealand looks after its environment and we have lead change that promotes honest politics.

We lead the debate on issues that matter to the people of Aotearoa because of this collective strength.

We can stitch New Zealanders together around a shared vision - a vision of what our country can be.

MINING IN SCHEDULE 4 LAND
Right now the clearest example is our effective opposition to plans to mine our National Parks and other treasured places

o John Key’s plan to dig up our conservation estate - but only the best bits,
o
o John Key’s plan to jeopardise Aotearoa’s clean green reputation,
o
o John Key’s plan to take away our competitive advantage from tourism, dairying, our meat and wool industry, our fruit and wine exporters,
o
o John Key’s plan to sell off our national heritage – to the highest bidder for a few pieces of gold,
o
o John Key’s mining madness.
o
o
It has become clear that John’s agenda was to mine most of our National Parks, but his agenda has changed because of us, the Green Party and the thousands of New Zealanders who have joined with us.

We brought John’s mining plans to the public’s attention. Last August we challenged the claim that it was just a “stock take”. In October, we revealed that the “stock take” included Mt Aspiring National Park, among others.

In December we dismantled John’s fallacious economic argument. We showed that miniscule mining royalties are not worth more than the damage to our economy, worth more than our pride, worth more than our sense of place and identity.

By February of this year, we had forced the Government to change its agenda. We had forced them to scale back their mining madness.

And the pressure continues to mount. Tens of thousands of New Zealanders marched through the streets of Auckland. Thousands of New Zealanders made submissions to the Government. We know that 40,000 New Zealanders signed the Green Party petition against mining our treasured places. And thank you to all of you for your incredible work.

The Government has been exposed for its agenda of mindless, extractive economic growth. Just who is this news to? This is the National Party – what did we expect of John Key?

We will make John Key’s Government back down even further. We will prevail. New Zealanders believe in their hearts and know with their heads what is most important. These are National Parks not National’s Parks. These treasured places are too precious to mine.

The mining debate and the changing culture around expenses shows how our approach works, how we make change, and how we help set the agenda.

And while we fight for the health of our water and land and wilderness, we do not limit ourselves to fighting for our natural world.

We are leaders in binding together our whenua and our whānau.

MIND THE GAP

You all know my own personal story. I relied on the state’s support as a sole parent. I used open access to university to get a second chance at an education so I could get a good job and care for my family. That support and that access is the right of every single New Zealander. Everyone is entitled to dignity and a fair go.

For 20 years, the Green Party has worked to make sure that social justice stays on the nation’s political agenda.

Days before the Budget, we released an eight point plan of practical steps to narrow the gap between rich and poor in Aotearoa. And soon, I will talk more about this plan that we have called ‘Mind the Gap.’

But first I want to talk about its role in a nation-wide conversation.

INEQUALITY AND CHOICES

Our work on promoting income equality is to remind New Zealand that every Budget is about choice. Every Budget is about priorities; who gets and who gives, who wins and who loses.

John Key made a choice when he raised the minimum wage by only 25 cents. It was a choice to give a billion dollar subsidy to business. A gross insult to working people everywhere, it was a choice John made about who benefits from government resources.

Because the minimum wage is low, the Government has to help working men and women feed their families. If the minimum wage were $15 per hour, we would spend $1 billion less on income support. It is a billion dollars that we pay instead of big business.

Big business gets a billion dollar subsidy and big business makes a profit while workers like those in aged care services and young workers in fast food outlets are left to languish on an income that barely supports them or their children.

And now we see that John has chosen to give the biggest tax cuts to the wealthiest.

So that’s the choice: a lot for those with the most and just a little for those with the least.

Now, we released our ‘Mind the Gap’ plan on a Monday, the Government released its Budget on a Thursday, and by the Sunday, Finance Minister Bill English was facing questions about the Budget and inequality.

It was a very simple question really – did the Budget make the gap between the haves and the have-nots bigger or smaller?

Sometimes the simplest questions are the hardest to answer. Bill said that his Government had not made “that problem significantly worse in a static sense.”

I can translate this for you. It means “we’ve done nothing.”

Bill said the inequality problem was “basically the same.” Let me translate. It means National’s attitude is basically the same: let the rich get richer and let the rest eat the crumbs swept off the fat cats’ table.

‘Mind the Gap’ has already helped change the political debate and set the political agenda around government spending.

Now New Zealanders are asking the fundamental question: who is your priority Mr English and Mr Key – is it those who have the most or those who need the most?

Their answer is that they are on the side of those who have a lot already.

Our job is to make John Key’s choices clear to New Zealand. Our job is to offer other choices. Our job is to have a discussion with NZ about what we want as a country.

That is ‘Mind the Gap’. That’s what it’s for. That’s what it does.

It reflects what is good for all New Zealanders, rather than what is good just for the few.

It sets the agenda. The Green Party stands for ecological wisdom and social responsibility. The agenda is right at the top: let’s give everyone a fair go.

Let’s guarantee the essentials like good schools and good health care.

We say yes to qualified teachers and we say no to national standards; trial national standards not our kids.

We say keep ACC as it is and we say no to privatisation of what is a world-leading health system.

Let’s provide decent work with a living wage and protect workers’ rights. We say yes to a $15 minimum wage and we say no to fire-at-will legislation.

Let’s build caring communities and a sense of belonging. We say yes to income support that keeps all our children out of poverty and we say no to attacks on vulnerable families, attacks designed to exclude and degrade.

I want to acknowledge the work done by Unite, the Service and Food Workers union, all our allies in the union movement who are fending off attacks on workers’ rights, and I want to recognise the work of those in the community sector, protecting our most vulnerable families.

We know the society we want. How do we get there from here?

‘Mind the Gap’ presents eight practical steps we can take to reduce income inequality. It is a start and it shows us that we can do it. We can have a society where everyone has a fair go.

Inequality hurts everyone in New Zealand, rich and poor. Inequality lowers life expectancy no matter how much you earn. It increases obesity no matter how much you earn. It fills our hospitals and our prisons and we all pay those bills, no matter how much we earn.

So the smart move is to focus on reducing the gap between the haves and the have-nots, so that we are all better off.

And the problem in New Zealand is urgent. We have some of the worst income disparity in the OECD.

At the launch of ‘Mind the Gap’, we heard about the mother so malnourished that she could not produce breast milk for her child. That mother lives here in New Zealand.

We also heard about the 20,000 children who are going to school each day without food, shoes and raincoats. Those children live here in New Zealand.

PROGRESSIVE PRICING
We also heard that one in every four New Zealand homes spends more than 10 percent of their income on household energy. When you spend more than 10 percent of what you earn to stay warm, that’s fuel poverty.

Some of our most vulnerable families are forced to choose between eating and heating.

These cold, damp houses cost us more than $50 million each year in hospital admissions. 180,000 work days are lost because the cold and the damp is making Kiwis sick.

We propose a progressive power pricing system.

Under this system, the first portion of every household’s power bill would be at a low price. Additional power would be charged at a higher price, keeping the incentive for us all to save energy.

Why progressive pricing? Because if we give every family a reasonable amount of electricity at a fixed low rate, that will help them to stay warm and healthy.

Progressive pricing will help us all but it will have the most positive impact on the poorest families.

We could bring 70,000 homes out of energy poverty and ease the burden on hundreds of thousands more.

And we would all enjoy the flow-on benefits like less health spending.

TAX FREE $10,000
In ‘Mind the Gap’ we propose a tax-free ten thousand, that is, we make the first $10,000 of income tax-free for every New Zealander.

There’s already a tax-free threshold in Australia, in Canada, in France, and in Germany. If we did it here, every New Zealander would benefit, but those on low incomes would gain the most, proportionately. They would have more money in hand for the essentials.

It’s a matter of choice. Our progressive tax cut costs less than the government’s regressive tax cut.

Mind the Gap proposes to make our income support more effective. We would extend the In-Work Tax Credit to 140,000 of the country’s poorest families, and reinstate the discretionary Special Benefit. An extra $60 each week for a struggling family is the difference between taking a sick child to the doctor or not; between paying the power bill or having the power cut off; between having fresh food for tea, or not.

STATE HOUSING
We can build 6000 more state houses. With more state housing, we give the most vulnerable families more stability, and better health and education outcomes. We can do this and boost our construction industry. We can do this and take some pressure off the rental market.

As it happens this was one of the dirty secrets buried in John Key’s budget. He has slashed the state housing budget. We have 10,000 New Zealanders on the state house waiting list, 10,000 New Zealanders in need. That is fact.

John Key chose to cut the state housing (acquisition) budget from $120 million to $18 million and wants further cuts over the next two years. That is fact.

His ministers insist this Government will build more state homes by making savings in other parts of the Housing Corporation’s budget. That is fiction.

How easily we forget, Mr Key, how quickly some of us who grew up in a state home forget, where we came from.

The Green Party would not cut the housing budget. We would build 6000 more state homes.

CAPITAL GAINS TAX
‘Mind the Gap’ is also fiscally responsible. It keeps the country’s books in balance with a capital gains tax that exempts the family home.

John Key says that raising GST and tax cuts for the rich will increase savings and shift investment into the productive sector.

The Greens say that a capital gains tax will do that more efficiently and more fairly.

I spoke about capital gains at the Picnic for the Planet. Russel has spoken about it publically throughout the year. It is an idea that he have put on the political agenda in New Zealand.

National tinkers around the edges. Labour can’t find the political courage to talk about it. We can. Once again we lead the change.

MMP
One of the reasons we can be effective champions for good Green change, is New Zealand’s MMP voting system.

MMP gives all New Zealanders a say. More women are represented in Parliament because of MMP and it has increased representation for Māori, Asian and Pasifika communities.

MMP also allows a wide range of political views to be heard in Parliament including Green views.

But MMP is under pressure from small, right wing groups that want to see a return to the 1980s.

Right now, the Government is taking submissions on the Electoral Referendum Bill and you have until Thursday (June 10) to make your voice heard.

Right now, the legislation lacks any limits on special interest spending and the referendum could be a battle of money instead of ideas. So please take the time to make a submission.

Tax reform, mining in our treasured places, honest politics, the gap between rich and poor: right now we are setting the agenda on these political issues and many others.

I am proud of our leadership. I am proud of it because I love New Zealand and I want to look after our land. I am proud of it because I love New Zealand and I want to look after all of our people. I know you do too and so I hope that you also take pride in our ability to make good Green change.

We have sewn together a vision for our country where our whānau and our whenua are respected, nurtured and cherished.

We have stitched into the political fabric the real alternatives to the greed and degradation this Government proposes: Green choices for a fair and just economy that works for every family, for every child.

We have bound together, through respect and persistence, communities from across Aotearoa who believe in our vision for a fair and sustainable and prosperous Aotearoa.

I hope you take pride and take courage to continue the good work we do. We have done it for 20 years already. We will continue to do so.

ENDS

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