Greens Announce New Candidate Virginia Horrocks to stand in Hutt South

The Green Party has selected well-known local community and environmental advocate Virginia Horrocks as their candidate for the Hutt South electorate.

She replaces Susanne Ruthven who withdrew her candidacy following her appointment as Senior Counsel for the Ministry for Pacific Peoples. Virginia will be campaigning for the party vote for the Greens to strengthen our representation in parliament.

Born in Lower Hutt, Virginia Horrocks has been active locally since her return to the city in 2004, continuing decades of community involvement particularly focussed on community health, education and the environment. She is currently in her third term as an Eastbourne Community Board member and her second as the chair.

“I am standing for the Green Party in this election as I believe it is essential that the core Green Party values of environmental and social responsibility are well represented in any future government and this will only happen with a strong Green Party vote,” Virginia says.

“Already the Greens have had a major positive influence on Parliament. It was the Green Party that introduced Buy Kiwi Made and the Enviroschools programmes, that initiated the $1 billion warm, dry homes plan, that begun the drive to make rivers swimmable, kicked off the national cycleway and now Metiria Turei has drawn national attention to the reality of poverty in New Zealand.

“The Green voice in Parliament has led the way in bringing these issues to the fore. That voice needs to be strong now more than ever.

“Locally, the need for greater environmental protection has been highlighted by recent problems with our aquifer. The Greens are the only party with a policy specifically seeking protection for our aquifers. We have a Private Members’ Bill to keep our water from underground sources safe from pollution, contamination, and over-extraction.

“Lower Hutt in particular is also scarily vulnerable to rising sea levels. I am on a Hutt City Council advisory committee on sustainability which is advocating for serious long term planning for how the Hutt Valley will cope with climate change.

“While local action is great, the challenge of climate change requires a government-led national response.

“After nine years of National we’ve had no action on climate change. Climate pollution has gone up 19 percent and the current Government has no plan to turn this around. That’s letting down today’s young people and future generations.

“The Greens are committed to making New Zealand carbon neutral by 2050 and have a plan for making it happen.”

Green Party Co-leader James Shaw says, “We are really excited to have Virginia Horrocks as the Hutt South candidate. She brings a wealth of local knowledge, decades of passionate advocacy for the environment and the experience of having previously stood for the Greens in the Hutt in 2008.”

-ENDS-

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