Fitzsimons Jeanette: Adjournment — Sittings of the House 
Fitzsimons Jeanette: Adjournment — Sittings of the House 
[Volume:644;Page:14063] 
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 The year 2007 has been a great year for the Greens. It has been a year of achievement rather than bravado filibustering or pointless points of order. And I am proud of the fact that we have had a record number of members’ bills in front of the House this year. Three of them have passed into law in just one year. With those three bills we have given young workers the dignity of equal pay for equal work with older people. We have given workers juggling work with responsibilities as carers the right to seek flexible working hours. We have changed the law to make it unacceptable to beat children. 
We have five more bills still before the House. The Waste Minimisation (Solids) Bill which has the support of the Government and select committee is the first ever bill in this Parliament to deal with the 1 tonne a year of waste that every man woman child and baby produces in this country. We have a bill that will strengthen the bonds between mothers in prison and their babies—a powerful influence to prevent reoffending. We have a bill to allow people in chronic pain to avoid the pharmaceuticals that have awful side effects or do not work and to take instead medically prescribed cannabis where the doctor believes that is the most appropriate medicine. We have two bills on climate change. One of those is to reinstate greenhouse gas emissions in the Resource Management Act which should never have been removed from it when considering air-discharge consents. We also have a bill on transport funding still awaiting its first reading to enable us to change the balance of spending to go to a more sustainable transport system with less money going on new motorways and more on alternatives to roading. 
Under our cooperation agreement with the Government we have led the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy which is making the homes of New Zealanders warmer and healthier and our vehicles much more fuel-efficient is improving our alternatives to cars like public transport and cycling and is expanding the use of solar water heating. Our Buy Kiwi Made programme has inspired New Zealanders with TV and print ads to support and nurture our local manufacturing businesses and their workers. We have secured budget funding for environmental education and organics advisory services for healthier food in schools and for increased overseas aid. And we have secured an independent prison inspectorate. I cannot say that the Greens are punching above their weight these days because we must not use such violent metaphors but there is no doubt at all that our six MPs have contributed way beyond our numbers. We have received multiple awards in the last few weeks for politicians and backbenchers of the year as we have in some previous years. 
Most important we are changing the culture of politics. When I came here 11 years ago the environment let alone climate change was hardly mentioned in Parliament. It was a struggle to find any opportunity to raise those issues. Now they are on everyone’s lips. The repeal of section 59 of the Crimes Act was bitterly contested in the House and in the community. Now the balance of public opinion is that it is wrong to beat kids and there are much better ways of disciplining them and helping them grow up to be good citizens. There is now a greater tolerance of personal lifestyles and relationships which are nobody else’s business and we have contributed to that. 
We have shown that the MMP parties despite their very different policies can work together to challenge behaviour in the House to develop shared codes of conduct to stop a massive eyesore on the Auckland waterfront and to get repeal of anachronistic sedition laws. We have stood up along with only the Maori Party and ACT against the Bush agenda of terrorism suppression laws that seriously suppress our civil rights. We have condemned police tactics of invading homes and communities with armed officers when there is no real evidence in many of those homes of any offending and there have been no charges laid. We have stood up for the right of people in New Zealand not to be imprisoned indefinitely without charge and worked for the eventual release of Ahmed Zaoui who was held at the behest of other countries without a shred of evidence of intended harm to our community. 
We have continued to challenge the assumption that our oil-devouring way of life can continue unchecked the assumption that we will need more vehicles more roads and to attract more international tourists when all the evidence is that the era of cheap oil is over. We have documented and graphed the absurd predictions of oil prices where for 4 years Government agencies have forecast price reductions when in fact prices have just continued to rise. Even today in the half-year Economic and Fiscal Update Treasury again predicts a price collapse for oil based on the same futures market that has been so wrong for so many years. 
We are looking forward to another great Green year in 2008. We will continue to show the way to real sustainability while the Government takes delivery of its new ministerial cars with a fuel efficiency that hugely exceeds its own standards for other people. We will continue to challenge the Government to stop subsidising the coal industry by not requiring it to meet the cost of its coal seam methane emissions under the emissions trading scheme and to stop subsidising the dairy industry by exempting its greenhouse emissions for 5 whole years. We will challenge the Government to clean up our polluted waterways. We will challenge it to put in place a proper strategy for peak oil. We will continue to campaign on food safety and on the consumers’ right to know with country-of-origin labelling laws. 
We look forward to the passing of our Waste Minimisation (Solids) Bill the equivalent in its effect to the first Green members’ legislation the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act passed in 2000. We look forward to the passing of the Corrections (Mothers with Babies) Amendment Bill and our two climate change bills. And we look forward to returning here towards the end of the year with an increased number of MPs so that we can do even more in the next Parliament. 
Madam Speaker may I thank you on behalf of all the Greens for your management of the House this year and wish you the Deputy Speaker the Assistant Speakers and all members a restorative holiday and the enjoyment of family and friends. I thank my extremely hard-working and committed Green colleagues our amazing staff who go far beyond the call of duty and all those who support us in this place: the Clerk’s Office with particular congratulations to Mary Harris on her new appointment the library the travel office the messengers the cleaners who come in at the dead of night and the Bellamy’s staff. I wish all of you the joys of a Christmas season not cluttered with stuff and frantic consumption but blessed with the people you love and the places you treasure.