Green Party pre-budget policy launch

Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, May 13th, 2014 - 10 comments
Categories: Economy, election 2014, greens, jobs, Metiria Turei, poverty, russel norman, sustainability, wages - Tags:

This morning the Green Party will do a pre-budget economic policy launch live on line: livestream here 11am 11.30am – 12.30pm. [Edit: my mistake – got the start time wrong]

green_party_leaders_russel_norman_and_metiria_ture_4dec906e26

While relatively low key, this is an innovative approach to a policy launch.  However, they have shown for a while that they are pretty adept at interacting with Kiwis via social media.  Co-leader, Metiria Turei is quite personable, and sometimes fun on Twitter.  And she handled crushed Collins attacks on her clothes extremely well, opening her “castle” to the media, and, particularly doing a good showing of it on Campbell Live.

The Greens have their serious political side, as well as being grounded in grassroots activities.

Norman turei waka

Both are connected to their policies aimed at making life better for low-to-middle income Kiwis.  Turei’s maiden speech on her working class background and commitment to working for others struggling on low incomes provides a significant understanding of her values and approach to politics.

NZEI rally Turei at Aotea Square

Her Question of John Key in the House, about Planet Key, is a classic:

Russel Norman and partner Katya Paquin at home on Campbell Live, had Norman in relaxed and playful mode, while also showing his motivation for and commitment to politics.

She [Paquin] is a law and politics graduate, with honours, from Victoria University, and the pair have two small boys together.

Dr Norman’s father Colin Norman was a working-class man from Brisbane, and was killed in an accident when Russel was 17. He was part of a very large family, and decided to put himself through an engineering degree, and became a mechanical engineer.

For the most part, Dr Norman’s childhood was in the Brisbane suburbs, with bikes, backyards and not a lot of money, but he dreamt of more for his future.

[…]

“The more I learnt about politics and the world, I realised that the problem wasn’t that there weren’t enough doctors, it was politics,” says Dr Norman. “The problem was that [we] had to change politics.”

In the Norman-Paquin house, family aside, politics is the passion, and Masterchef certainly isn’t.

But that passion for politics saw Dr Norman studying New Zealand’s Alliance as a new take on left-wing politics, and writing a PhD thesis in New Zealand politics.

Norman Campbell Live

Gareth Hughes also has a strong presence on Twitter.  And he has formulated Green Party policy on the information and communciations technology.

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See here for more Green Party policy

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I’ll be watching to see the policy launch at 11am today, and will be interested to see both the content, and how it is done.

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[Update] policy here – Green Investment Bank

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Summary:

1. Establish a government-owned for-profit Green Investment Bank to act as an independent and expert facilitator of private sector capital to help lead the transition to a smarter, greener economy.

2. Cost: $120 million over three years to be paid for by raising oil royalty rates to international averages and reprioritising government spending.

3. In time, see billions of dollars of (mainly) private sector finance funding new renewable energy plants, solar panel installations, energy efficiency retrofits, the development and production of significant volumes of biofuels, and clean technology project

How it will work:

Priority clean tech sectors for investment

The Green Investment Bank will operate at arms-length from government but will operate under a mandate to prioritise investment in decarbonising our economy and making our economy more resource and energy efficient. This will likely include securing new investment in renewable energy plants, solar panel installations, energy efficiency retrofits, the development and production of significant volumes of biofuels, and a wide range of clean technology projects.

An Example:

Biofuels from forestry waste products in particular offer a viable alternative to oil imports but the technology and infrastructure required is currently not being funded by the private sector. We can reduce oil use in the transport sector by up to 50 percent by 2050 by using New Zealand’s vast energy resources in our exotic forests.

The commercialisation of technology to turn forestry wood waste into biofuels for transport will have significant co-benefits for jobs and reduce our reliance on oil imports. Business and Economic Research Ltd (BERL) estimates 27,000 new jobs can be created in the bioenergy sector throughout rural New Zealand while saving more than $7 billion in oil imports each year.

I will add news reports and analysis of this new policy as they become available:

Hamish Rutherford on Stuff.

Co-leader Russel Norman today unveiled plans for “an enduring, government-owned, for-profit bank” that would partner the private sector to fund projects from renewable energy and biofuel production to new clean technologies.

[…]

The plan received a warm reception from the New Zealand Bankers Association, but chief executive Kirk Hope questioned the use of the term “bank”.

Adam Bennett – NZ Herald.

TVNZ News

TV3 News

RNZ

10 comments on “Green Party pre-budget policy launch ”

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  1. captain hook 1
    13 May 2014 at 10:59 am

    Just make sure gluon espinah doesn’t turn up. I am getting really sick of his whining on morning report and the way he manages to say greens with an inflection that is really sly and demeaning.

  2. Philj 2
    13 May 2014 at 11:20 am

    xox
    Linda Clark and Paddy were very quick to put down Russel on Sunday morning tv. And Linda Clark lost any credibility she had left, when pimping for Jamie ‘ Lord of the Jungle’ White. Linda, I don’t think Russel is seeking your vote. You are delusional if you seriously think he does.

  3. karol 3
    13 May 2014 at 11:37 am

    Now i seem IT challenged. The website says that the livestream event has started, but I’m not seeing anything. I then signed up with livestream, but still nothing?

    Edit: Ah, it’s working now.

  4. Tracey 4
    13 May 2014 at 1:10 pm

    thanks karol.

  5. ianmac 5
    13 May 2014 at 1:15 pm

    Adam Bennett has a good write up on the Herald, about the Green Investment Bank’ plan. Simple description. Well summarised.
    Two things will happen.
    The Nats will slam it as crazy. (In spite of it being a good plan in UK and in Australia etc.)
    The Herald will slip it rapidly down the page until it is invisible.

  6. blue leopard 6
    13 May 2014 at 5:15 pm

    This seems like a very good idea. I really like the sound of what is coming out of both the Greens and Labour recently – it appears that both these parties have been putting their thinking caps on and are trying to address the very real problems New Zealand and its people face – problems that just appear to have been ignored for a very long time.

    I really hope that New Zealanders are not so naïve and backwards as to believe what the ‘twiddle-the-thumbs-emit-hot-air-and-sell-out National party have to say on these parties’ policies, the current state of our country or matters that affect us because National just seem to make things up.

    National appear to spend more time thinking up spin for how to cover up what a mess they are making and whose interests they work for than actually doing things to address the interests of the greatest number of New Zealanders.

    This country will be much improved under a left-wing Government.

    Cheers to the Greens, Labour and Mana.

    • karol 6.1
      13 May 2014 at 6:32 pm

      Yes, it’s an interesting innovation. There are examples of Green Banks in operation, but the Aussie government is going to close there’s. Does this mean it could become a political football with a Nat government of the future axing it?

      It looks good in that it offers a carrot and stick approach – investment support for green initiatives; end of subsidies and higher taxes on fossil fuel extraction.

      I’m not keen on the mention that the likes of this, as mentioned in the Green Party policy document:

      Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi, JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs,
      HSBC, and Morgan Stanley – recently released the governance framework for a green bond
      market.

      • blue leopard 6.1.1
        13 May 2014 at 8:56 pm

        Hmm, yes I see what you mean. I hadn’t looked at the detail and unclear what that bit about those banksters meant. (Whether they will be involved or simply that they are doing similar things). I wonder, though, if it means that if those big troughers are involving themselves in this sort of thing, then it is likely to mean it is a profitable activity? (!)

        Interesting to read that other places have got them. I guess I’ll have to read up on how they are going.

  7. Disraeli Gladstone 7
    13 May 2014 at 7:37 pm

    I think it’s a really decent policy. It’s realistic but ambitious. Nice stuff by the Greens.

    I fully expect Steve Joyce will label it as the First Horseman of the Apocalypse by tomorrow morning.