Fitzsimons Jeanette: General Debate 
Fitzsimons Jeanette: General Debate 
[Volume:654;Page:2936] 
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 My colleagues Kennedy Graham and Kevin Hague have described the inability of the old politics of right and left to address the unique challenges that face us in the 21st century. My task today in the third of these four statements to the House is to outline how Green politics can respond to those key challenges. 
Nineteen years ago our charter set out the principle of ecological wisdom. It recognised that if we fail to live within the limits of our planet’s natural resources then we will simply fail to live. Wisdom is greater than knowledge. It implies understanding and an ability to see consequences and adapt. Ecological wisdom tells us that there is no “away” to throw things to that as in nature our wastes must be the raw materials for another process and that when one species outgrows its food supply or fouls its habitat it will crash. It suggests that our economy will thrive only if it mimics the cycles of nature that have sustained life on this planet for millions of years. If resources like fresh water land fisheries and the rate of solar input are limited—and surely there is no one in this House now who believes otherwise—then we cannot deal with poverty by just expanding the size of the economy. 
Trickle down never did work anyway but the social democratic bargain between capital and labour pretended that it did. Labour would allow the capitalist system to maximise resource use and production provided a share of it was passed to workers. The gap between rich and poor continued to grow but it was disguised by rising living standards for everyone and that is no longer possible. Even in the last 9 years Labour has allowed the gap between the poorest 10 percent and the richest to continue to grow. 
The Greens’ principle of social justice recognises that if the economy cannot continue to get bigger as it always has then we must share our wealth more equitably. People seem to find sharing really hard yet even by the age of 3 my grandson had grasped the principle and he managed to live by it most of the time. What is it that happens to us after kindergarten that makes it so much harder? Why do we encourage our small children to share their toys but teach them later that self-interested win-lose competition brings the greatest good? Sharing of course is a bad idea if we believe that happiness can be attained only by getting more stuff. 
What we value is at the heart of any economic system. If we value only what can be priced then of course we will pursue economic growth right to the point where the collapse of our life support system destroys us all. If we instead value our families our friends our community our human relationships our natural environment and the time to enjoy them—quality rather than quantity—we will measure our success with a genuine progress indicator rather than by the sheer size of economic output. New Zealand ranked sixth in a recent OECD survey on people’s satisfaction with their lives despite our GDP per capita being towards the low end of the OECD. People generally get richer over their lifetime but the evidence is that they do not get happier. 
We also in the Greens have a different view of what it is to be a global citizen. We support a healthy globalisation founded on democratic political governance and the rule of law which is compatible with the interests of every human being on the planet not just the elite that currently govern most countries. We recognise that fair trade can bring benefits to all countries but that trading patterns today are often at the price of unsustainable use of fossil fuels and unjust exploitation of workers and the natural environment. 
Michael Cullen in his valedictory speech concluded belatedly but correctly that ecological sustainability is about our survival. Yet he said that the Greens should loosen up. Our caucus and our lives are full of laughter and fun. We take pleasure in living more simply and minimising our impact on the Earth. We offer New Zealand a satisfying and a joyful way of life but we will also sound the alarm honestly and clearly and with no apologies about the fate that our society will face if we do not change. If that makes people feel uncomfortable then perhaps it is because there is genuine cause for alarm.