Turei Metiria: Appropriation (2009/10 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Turei Metiria: Appropriation (2009/10 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:656;Page:5912] 
METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 Last year in the equivalent debate—this debate happens every year—my colleague and co-leader of the Green Party Russel Norman said that the defining realities of the 21st century were threefold. The first was the real constraint of resource depletion particularly of oil fresh water and arable lands. The second was the decreasing capacity of the planet to absorb our pollution and our waste like carbon dioxide. The third was our addiction as a species to exponential growth in both resource use and waste production. These are global realties but they are played out every day in our own communities. They are made real by the current twin crises that our communities face—the crisis of the global recession and that of climate change. 
Each Government is required to deal with these constraints in a practical and effective way that protects the community and the environment that prepares for the consequences of an oil-constrained world and that ensures our country will continue to prosper in the world. This was the opportunity for this new Government to demonstrate that capacity. But doing so required a New Zealand Government to understand one basic fundamental truth about the New Zealand economic context: no environment—no economy. In a climate crisis action now saves us money. In a recession every job counts. 
The Green Party of course has had the common sense to recognise that our economy is 100 percent dependent on our environment. That is why prior to the Budget announcement we released a Green New Deal stimulus package of a very modest investment of $3.3 billion over 3 years that would create 43000 new jobs for New Zealanders. Unlike this Government’s stale 19th century approach of taking money from the most vulnerable in order to provide subsidies to the most powerful our Green New Deal package would help to develop a stronger more resilient and more prosperous economy for everyone in our country. 
Alongside the stimulus package we have produced a range of measures in a report called  
Getting there 
 to reduce our carbon emissions in order to meet a responsible emissions target of 30 to 40 percent. We must reduce our carbon emissions and increase our carbon sinks if we are to protect our economy and our environment from the worst costs of climate change. These are the Green twin solutions to the twin crises. Our Green twin solutions will help to ensure we have a prosperous nation ready for the challenges of the 21st century. Our Green twin solutions propose major energy efficiency improvements—for example the reduction of the demand for energy and the reduction of carbon emissions—while saving money for our New Zealand families. Home insulation will reduce energy demand and save families money in their power bills. Business efficiency upgrades will increase productivity and save energy costs for businesses. Speeding up the replacement of the Huntly coal-fired power station by new geothermal and wind generation which is already in the pipeline will also help to reduce costs and save on carbon emissions. These investments in major energy efficiency and reduction in energy demand will create some 2700 jobs. In a climate crisis early action saves us money. In a recession every job counts. 
This Government has dedicated huge amounts of public money into the building of motorways. The Greens’ twin solutions clearly show that this use of public funds is grossly irresponsible. The Government argues that because 85 percent of New Zealanders go to work by car we therefore have to spend all our money on roads. But we know that our public transport system is creaking at the seams. Indeed just this year there was a 10 percent growth in the use of public transport in Auckland. Public transport usage grew by 3.9 million trips. But the Government is stuck in the 19th century and is failing to deal with these real issues of climate change peak oil and the costs that are therefore borne by our families. Our Green twin solutions will reduce our emissions reduce families’ transport costs and reduce our current account deficit in part through the lessening over time of our dependence on oil and therefore in the spending of some $8 billion a year on oil imports. Our solutions would reduce our oil imports by moving funding from low-quality spending on new motorways into high-quality spending on increased public transport capacity. We know that we can create 40 percent more jobs through spending on public transport safer cycling and walking than on roads. We would reduce congestion pollution child road deaths and costs to business. We would help our current account deficit as I have outlined. In a climate crisis action now will save us money and in a recession every job counts. 
The Government’s decision to axe funding for children and their families was a key means by which big business and wealthy interests were subsidised through tax cuts and other subsidies. It was a key means by which this Government took money from the most vulnerable to give to the most powerful. Funding is being slashed in adult and community education. Enviroschools funding has been slashed and 675 schools and over 200000 children are losing the support that the Government provided to that important programme. Three million dollars a year has been axed from the Nutrition Fund which was set up to help schools have healthy eating and edible garden initiatives. We know that poor diet contributes to poor learning outcomes and that poor diet contributes to some 8000 preventable deaths in this country yet the Minister has axed food and nutritional guidelines. There have been cuts to funding for 80 projects that were supported through the Enterprise Allowance scheme. These were projects that provided employment in local and rural areas the basis of quality economic development in those areas where it was most needed by New Zealand families. 
Our Green twin solutions will protect our families and our country’s children. We want New Zealanders to be warmly housed to be healthy and well and to have access to affordable food and clean water so our kids can learn better at school. More of our communities will have warmer drier and healthier homes under the Greens’ twin solutions including the 6000 extra homes built by otherwise unemployed builders plumbers and electricians. We will get the families that are desperately in need of homes off the waiting lists and with a roof over their heads. Social cohesion will be better encouraged during these particularly tough times especially for our older folk who rely on programmes like adult and community education to stay connected to the communities they have supported through many many years of work and volunteering. We will support communities by investing in community economic development initiatives. Recycling and waste initiatives if they are locally and community-owned return much more to the local community than do national or international companies. We will invest in free low-cost health care community transport community gardens river and coastal restoration projects and the creation of some 700 extra jobs. 
This Government through its Budget initiatives has returned this country to the 19th century. The provision of more roads and the development of more coal-fired power stations through some of the legislation the Government has passed denies the reality of an increasingly constrained resource-constrained environment. Our country must be prepared for the new challenges of the new century as opposed to looking back to the old century. Our Green twin solutions to the twin crises would set New Zealand on a path to a low-carbon less oil-dependent more prosperous future. Our twin solutions will ready our communities and help to protect them by providing new jobs and protecting the environment on which our economy is so completely dependent. In a climate crisis early action—action now—will save us money. In a recession every job counts. The Green Party’s twin solutions to the twin crises would provide that; this Government has taken us backwards. Thank you.