Bradford Sue: Adjournment 
Bradford Sue: Adjournment 
[Volume:627;Page:22372] 
SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
: 
 As we reach the end of this term of Parliament the second in which the Green Party has been represented here in our own right we face an absolutely critical election which will be held in a volatile environment locally and internationally. Overseas wars in Iraq and elsewhere simmer and burn. Millions live in poverty and continue to die of starvation AIDS and other diseases. The planet keeps getting hotter and our ability to depend on fossil fuels as our main source of energy is starting to decline rapidly. Here in Aotearoa New Zealand we ignore all that at our peril. The general election in just over 6 weeks’ time pales into insignificance when put it up against those global concerns. Yet as always it is in our own place that we can all try to make our primary contribution towards improving the state of the world. I hope our next Government will be one that prefers peace to war that does not chase slavishly after American neo-conservative ambitions and that continues to increase our own small contributions towards helping to deal with desperate poverty and environmental degradation in the world out there. 
We have in front of us a stark choice at this election between a Government led by Don Brash and backed mainly by New Zealand First or one led by Helen Clark and backed primarily by the Green Party. Those two possibilities present very different outcomes and I hope people will consider quite deeply the kind of future they prefer. Unlike some of the other smaller parties we in the Greens have made it quite clear where we stand. We will not support a National-led Government under any circumstances and I am sure that National feels pretty much the same way about us. However we will be open to negotiating an agreement with Labour should it be open to that possibility. Indications so far are that it may well be. 
We nine Green MPs stand on our record through the last two terms of Parliament and believe we have a lot to offer should the voters give us and Labour the possibility and opportunity to work together in the next Government. The Green Party brings with it to the table a kaupapa of environmental nurturing social justice non-violence and participatory democracy. We have no bottom lines. Through both the Values Party and the Green Party we have maintained our principles for 3 decades despite the oft-times derision and contempt of our political opponents. Now we believe we have reached the point where we are ready to give Government a go. Labour needs us too; it is not a one-way street. Labour needs our commitment to a sustainable future and a fairer society and our many ideas about solutions to environmental and social problems. A Labour - New Zealand First Government would look very different from a Labour-Green one. One only has to look at Winston Peters’ approach to immigrants and refugees or at his outright support for “forced work for the dole as fast as possible” to see the direction in which he would quickly like to take the country. 
Although over the last 3 years of this parliamentary term the Greens have basically been an Opposition party that has given support to the Government when we have seen fit within that role we have brought a voice and a vision to Parliament and to public discourse that would not otherwise have been heard or visible. Our achievements in the last couple of years include our members’ bills. Recently Sue Kedgley’s bill promoted flexible working hours and now my own bill aims to repeal section 59 of the Crimes Act. Both of those bills are now before select committees. Our MPs also had a major input into the development of the Land Transport Management Act. We foiled the Government’s plans to set up a trans-Tasman food regulatory authority based in Canberra helped to stop Project Aqua on the Waitaki put animal welfare food safety and waste reduction firmly on the political agenda and supported civil unions Maori Television and the clean slate legislation. We have played a key role in the 2-year campaign to get Ahmed Zaoui out of jail. We have kept child and adult poverty on the political agenda negotiated a Government commitment to an independent prison inspectorate instigated an inquiry into cannabis and catalysed the party pill legislation. We have kept pressing for the reduction of the student debt burden and for a universal living allowance for students. We have supported Labour on all its reforming legislation around accident compensation and workers’ rights and conditions. We have consistently opposed the foreshore and seabed legislation have got the Government to adopt a proposal for a community-driven national dialogue on the treaty and have taken a leadership role on issues of human rights and peace. There is still no commercial release of GE into the environment of this country. A new monitoring programme for the use of GE in food has begun after years of Green lobbying. Green-Government cooperation on transport issues has assisted in achieving the buy-back of the rail track action on vehicle emissions screening and a big boost to Auckland rail and bus services including bus and cycle lanes. 
Our MPs have continued as we did in our first term here to take a principled stand on issues and not to trade between them. Nor do we get into personal stoushes here in the House. We are here to make a serious contribution. That is what we have done and will continue to do after 17 September. There is a lot of unfinished business. Just in my portfolio areas alone I am aware of legislation like the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill which would reform and improve the law for people living in boarding houses but which has sadly lingered on the Order Paper for years and still has not seen the light of day in this House for reasons unknown to me. The New Zealand Sign Language Bill and the Disabled Persons Employment Promotion (Repeal and Related Matters) Bill also languish on the Order Paper. I am sorry that those two bills both of which are geared towards improving the situation of big groups of people within the disabilities sector have not quite made it out of the gate. As with the three bills I have just named my own bill to repeal section 59 of the Crimes Act and remove the defence of reasonable force which allows parents to seriously beat their children and get away with it legitimised by the State will survive only if we end up with a new Parliament that supports continuing with such legislation. 
This year the Green Party is campaigning hard for the return of political parties to this Parliament that can work together in a cooperative and consultative way for the common good. Our kaupapa and our people can help to give Labour the heart soul and spine it needs not only to push through some of the legislation that has been left half-done but also to instigate a whole lot of new and positive progress on social economic and environmental issues. We would like to have the opportunity to do more to protect our native plants and animals and to restrict the sale of high country land and coastal property to New Zealand citizens and residents. It is critical that we speed up progress on the protection of our marine environment and nurture our coastal fisheries so that anyone can go out and catch a fish for dinner again. We must prepare for the end of cheap oil by future-proofing New Zealand against the shocks to come through our energy transport and housing strategies. 
The Green Party is committed to doing everything we can to bring an end to endemic child poverty the legacy of the last 2 decades which still affects over 20 percent of our country’s children even after 5½ years of a Labour Government. The minimum wage should be put up to $12 an hour immediately. We would very much like to see the introduction of a universal child benefit like the old family benefit and our income support system should be enough for people to actually live on without going endlessly into deeper and deeper debt. We will continue to oppose GE food and GE releases into our environment. We will do everything we can to protect and nurture taonga Maori including the foreshore and seabed and areas threatened by inappropriate mining. Our waterways should be safe for swimming and for collecting kai for the whanau. The food our children eat should be fresh and healthy. And there is so much more. 
The Green Party stands in Parliament to give a voice to those who often have not had a voice in this place: children people who have mental illness or other forms of disability and people who have been abused or raped. We stand here for prisoners refugees migrants unemployed workers beneficiaries and also for the non-human lives of our world which are totally defenceless here unless we humans give them expression. The Greens can and will add enormous value to the next Government. We intend to be back very shortly. We will be bigger bolder and stronger and ready to continue our work for a future that will work for us all here in this land and for all the species that share it with us.