Turei Metiria: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTurei Metiria: General Debate[Sitting date: 25 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18873. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green):Party vote Green on 20 September—party vote Green. The world has changed and we need new ideas and modern thinking to solve the problems and to seize the new opportunities. Old parties leave our economy our planet and our kids in a worse situation than ever before. Years of being hands-off has proven to be a serious let-down for our kids. The Green Party is ready to step up and kick off a new approach—an approach that invests in our people and in our planet. We love New Zealand. It is time for a new deal under which all our people and the whole of our planet will prosper.Three more years of National puts our kids and our environment at risk. I am asking New Zealanders to give their party vote to the Greens and to join us in removing the National Party risk from this Parliament. We need a Government that looks after every New Zealand child. When one in four New Zealand children lives in poverty something is seriously wrong. National does not even know about those children and it cannot even see those children let alone plan to build a fairer society for those children. National prioritises oil companies over our environment. Our beaches the Māui’s dolphins and the forest parks are all at risk from National’s oil agenda. We want to protect our precious places for all of us to enjoy and for our children and their children. National has run out of ideas on the issues that matter. It does not want us to follow the rest of the world on climate change. It wants us to follow the rest of the world as a tail rather than be the leaders on climate change that we know New Zealanders are. National is out of touch with the cost of living and we see that demonstrated in this House every day.The Green Party has never been more ready to deliver a better future for every New Zealander. We will invest in our children’s future to change their lives. We will deliver real support to our kids end child poverty and bring back hope for young New Zealanders. Already we have announced free doctors visits for all children from 0 to 18 community services in schools dedicated nurses in schools a national school lunch fund and removing discrimination from Working for Families that leaves out the very poorest kids.Our economic opportunities are green. We will steer our economy towards smart Green innovation that will deliver more and better jobs while protecting our environment. Our climate tax cut that puts a price on carbon will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and deliver a tax cut to all New Zealand families and businesses while our Green Investment Bank makes capital available to new sustainable industries to innovate in existing industries and to develop new well-paid and sustainable jobs and the opportunities of a 21st century global economy.Our environment is at the heart of our identity. We will step in to protect the environment and the precious places and species that make New Zealand the best place in the world to live. Every river should be clean enough for our children to swim in. It is their birthright to have the basics of clean water. We will fight to protect conservation land and our marine environment from the dirty mining industries that National puts ahead of everyone else. It puts our Māui’s dolphins our communities our critically endangered species and our forests at such risk. I am asking New Zealanders to give their party vote to the Green Party at this election to deliver to the country the Government that they deserve: a Government that puts our children and our environment at the forefront of every decision that we make and that puts children and our planet at the heart of New Zealand politics. Party vote Green on 20 September. Thank you.