A Green Government. FOR ALL OF US.
Our vision is an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti o Waitangi, where power and wealth sit with our communities, and where people and the rest of nature thrive together.
Aotearoa has enough for all of us. Our government should work for people and planet, not the greed of corporations and their shareholders.
For the past three years we’ve seen a Government on the side of the super-rich and the most powerful corporations.
Climate action cut, protections for nature gutted, and decisions handed to lobbyists and donors while families struggle with power bills, rent and groceries.
We’ve been told our entire lives that a fairer country is impossible by those profiting from things staying exactly as they are: unequal and unfair.
But New Zealanders know better. Politics belongs to those who turn up, and in communities across the motu, people are turning up demanding action.
This manifesto is our plan for a Green government to harness the energy for change, built on three priorities: affordable living, healthy nature and real democracy.
Affordable living, because we can have affordable electricity, housing, transport and groceries if we take on mega-corporate profits, and only the Green Party are willing to do that.
Healthy nature, because since the beginning we have worked to protect and restore our water, forests, air and soil.
And real democracy, because laws should be made for regular New Zealanders, not those who can afford to buy
access to shape the rules in their favour.
Paid for by a plan that will tax the super-rich and mega-corporations, help fund critical social services, and cut income tax for 96 percent of people.
None of this would be possible without the hopes, ideas and passion of Green Party members, and the movement they’ve built. This manifesto is their work, and their commitment to change in Aotearoa.
That change is not hypothetical. Last time the Greens were in Government, we took more action on climate than the previous three decades of governments combined, secured the biggest ever boost to funding for protecting native plants and wildlife, and delivered Aotearoa’s first plan to eliminate family and sexual violence.
A party vote for the Green Party puts more Green MPs and Ministers around the decision-making table to reverse the damage from the last three years and fix the rules so they’re on the side of people and planet.
Outlined in this document is a plan to do what is necessary. Protect what we all love. Ensure everyone’s needs are met. And make life better for all of us here in Aotearoa.
Marama Davidson | Chlöe Swarbrick
Green Party Co-Leaders
Climate action - emissions reduction 7
Climate action - resilience and adaptation 10
Conservation & biodiversity 13
Public & community services 77
Thriving tamariki and rangatahi
The Green Party will work to build a system that puts tamariki, rangatahi and whānau first.
Our tamariki and rangatahi deserve to be loved, nurtured and safe. They should be connected with their whānau, cared for and free to express their authentic selves, no matter where they live. We know we have enough to ensure tamariki are free from
poverty and supported through every step of their unique journey. Supporting tamariki means ensuring whānau and communities have everything they need to support their wellbeing.
We have a shared responsibility to make sure tamariki voices are heard, centred and reflected in all decisions that impact them. Tamariki deserve a skilled, well-supported workforce that is trauma informed, culturally responsive and properly trained.
Tamariki Māori are disproportionately impacted by a child protection system that excludes meaningful partnership and underinvests in culturally grounded, whānau-led solutions. A functioning system should centre whakapapa and identity, with whānau and hapū resourced to lead decisions affecting their tamariki.
The Green Party reflects our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi by addressing the inequities tamariki Māori face in everyday life and in the state care system.
Bold action and solutions that hold polluters to account
The Green Party will drive meaningful action, cutting climate pollution and making big polluters pay.
We will ensure that polluting corporations pay for Aotearoa to electrify our economy. By rapidly phasing out fossil fuels, we can ease cost of living pressures and decrease our vulnerability to global price shocks.
Under the leadership of a Green Minister for Climate Change, emissions began to drop. But now, the current Government is deliberately making choices to take us off that track. In Aotearoa, progress towards our domestic climate targets is at risk. Our international reputation has been tarnished due to this Government’s decisions to weaken our climate targets and exempt our biggest polluters from paying for their greenhouse gas emissions, undermining international agreements we have signed up to.
Decades of climate inaction shows that a hands-off government will fail to decarbonise our economy and secure the future everyone deserves. The market will not respond to the climate crisis at the scale or pace we need, and won’t give fair outcomes for those most affected.
We need political leadership that stops emissions at source, makes polluters pay, and focuses all government institutions on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.
The Green Party will implement climate solutions that tackle the root causes and honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We will remove economic incentives that encourage and enable climate pollution.
Keeping Aotearoa safe and prepared
The Green Party will prepare all New Zealanders for the impacts of climate change.
We will ensure that everyone is comprehensively supported through both the transition to a zero emissions economy and increasingly severe weather events like cyclones.
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time. Across Aotearoa, we are already feeling the impacts of more intense and frequent storms, flooding and drought with devastating consequences.
Marae and community groups are often on the frontlines of the emergency and clean-up response, but these groups are not supported by the Government to proactively plan and adapt.
People are worried about rising insurance prices, and what happens when disaster strikes, particularly those living in increasingly flood and slip exposed areas. They have not received any clarity from the Government about help that might be available down the track when they need it.
Climate change means that some areas are not safe to build in, nor to keep living in, and so retreat is the only safe option in the long term. But again, the Government has failed to help communities facing this uncertain future with any support, plans or guidance.
The Green Party will provide this much-needed clarity.
We will ensure that any National Adaptation Framework is anchored by Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We will support the autonomy and self-determination of hapū, iwi and community organisations to develop and implement their own climate change response plans.
The Green Party will ensure that local government and communities are comprehensively funded to respond to their climate adaptation challenges.
Protecting and restoring plants, animals and ecosystems.
The Green Party will protect our precious whenua, moana and taonga species from corporate exploitation.
Aotearoa is home to natural taonga found nowhere else in the world. Our ngahere (forests), awa (rivers) and moana are central to our national identity and way of life.
The Luxon Government has made it easier for corporations to plunder and tear up te taiao (nature), putting private profits ahead of our treasured native wildlife. Meanwhile, many of our native species are on the brink of collapse. Without urgent action, we’re at risk of losing them forever.
The Green Party will work towards protecting 30% of land and oceans because we know the mauri and health of te taiao is foundational to the wellbeing of our people, our climate and our communities. We will achieve this by giving effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and recognising tangata whenua as the original and ongoing kaitiaki of Aotearoa.
New Zealanders deserve to experience our national parks and hear the calls of our native manu for generations to come. That’s why the Green Party will ensure conservation decisions are made for the public good, not in the interests of private profiteers.
We won’t just restore what’s been lost. We will invest in an Aotearoa where people and nature flourish together.
An Aotearoa that values artists
The Green Party will invest in the arts, creativity and culture that make Aotearoa vibrant and unique.
Our art, artists and creatives tell the stories of our communities and help make sense of the world around us.
This government has starved the sector of support. Too many of our creatives are working without the certainty of a stable income, and many lack access to the training and education needed to foster their skills and talents. Steep cuts to Māori arts and broadcasting have left them to scale down or to fend for themselves.
Those governments have seen the arts as a nice-to-have, rather than central to our identity as New Zealanders. They’ve rolled out the red carpet for big overseas studios, sending funds offshore, while local and Indigenous artists are left to struggle.
Arts, culture and creativity are vital for creating vibrant cities and communities. Like other community infrastructure, the arts, culture and creative sectors need proper support.
It is time for artists and creatives to be valued, respected and recognised for their work.
The Green Party will fund the arts properly and ensure artists have the long-term sustainability, training and venues that are necessary to build an audience and a meaningful livelihood.
Together, we can support the people behind the books, music, movies, shows and images that tell our stories.
Politics for people, not big money
The Green Party will ensure that our democracy represents the people, not wealthy corporate interests.
Our democracy should work for everyone, not just the wealthy few.
Around the world, democracy is under threat by would-be dictators and corporate power.
Successive governments have meddled with our electoral rules for their own self-interest and failed to curb the influence of big corporate interests in politics.
This government has actively invited those big corporates in to write the rules in their own favour.
The richest few can spend millions trying to influence Ministers, while politicians weaken our donation laws, make it harder to vote and strip thousands of people of their right to vote in breach of their human rights.
The Green Party is committed to a democracy that upholds Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the vision of Matike Mai Aotearoa, creating a decision-making process that reflects genuine partnership.
We can create a more representative democracy by transforming our constitution, expanding voting rights and banning big money from politics.
Technology helping, not harming
The Green Party will hold digital platforms accountable to protect us and our information.
Digital environments should support our wellbeing, connect our communities, protect our privacy and respect our sovereignty and nature’s limits.
The choices we make on how to deploy and use technology should be under democratic control, not defined for us by overseas corporations who prioritise shareholders over citizens. All of us have been exposed to
harmful and toxic content that damages our mental health, weakens trust between people and splinters our shared reality.
Data centres running AI models threaten to suck the world’s energy and clean water sources dry. Intellectual property and Māori culture are exploited and stolen by
unaccountable platforms. Companies from social media giants to those storing our health records collect more information about us than required while proving that
they can’t be trusted with it.
Many of these platforms have become digital infrastructure necessary to access essential services, yet aren’t adequately regulated nor owned by Aotearoa. Many of us still face barriers to using these platforms at all.
Successive governments have left these platforms alone because they think it’s too hard, or they’ve wasted their time on false solutions.
The Green Party will take a harm-reduction approach to digital technology. We will hold digital platforms accountable to protect us and our information, so all of us can access and enjoy the benefits of digital services without compromising our privacy and our online safety.
An accessible Aotearoa for all
The Green Party will build an Aotearoa where disabled people are valued and they and their whānau live with dignity and autonomy.
An Aotearoa where disabled people and whānau have access to the services they need — like transport and good quality housing — means everyone can thrive in caring communities.
Our current laws, policies and social norms mean disabled people are often denied the same rights as others and are excluded from places and activities non-disabled people take for granted. These barriers are often worse for tāngata whaikaha Māori and for disabled people from marginalised communities.
The current Government has made it harder for disabled people to access the support they deserve and which enables them to participate equally in life and their communities.
The Green Party is ambitious in its plan to create a more accessible Aotearoa by building on the Enabling Good Lives framework and grounding our approach in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Our approach will operate on a high-trust model and apply to all disabled people, including those with disabling conditions who do not currently access support.
The Green Party is committed to an Aotearoa where disabled people and whānau thrive in caring communities.
Putting health first to keep people safe
The Green Party will take an evidenced, health-based approach to alcohol and other drugs to reduce harm in our communities.
Successive governments have tinkered around the edges of our drug laws but largely left them unchanged from the ‘war on drugs’ approach of 50 years ago. Newsflash: they’re losing the war on drugs. This approach has been punitive and has not reduced harm or demand. Instead, it fills our courts and prisons, diverts money away from public health services and leaves frontline services chronically under-resourced. It makes the problem worse.
Drugs exist and people use them. It’s a political decision to either try and reduce the harm that can arise and help make people’s lives safer, or leave people faced with stigma and fear that stops them from reaching out for help.
It’s past time to overhaul our drug laws and replace them with an evidence-based approach that prioritises the health of people. We will increase funding for mental health and addiction services and put a fence up at the top of the cliff, instead of handcuffs at the bottom.
An Aotearoa where everyone can reach their full potential
Education is a public good and a lifelong right, not a commodity. The Green Party believes education must foster curiosity, creativity and confidence. Education should support every person to discover who they are and how they can contribute to a just, sustainable world.
Education plays a vital role in building social cohesion and democratic life, and should be planned and funded to deliver this. Schools, kura and early learning centres should be places of belonging where diverse cultures, identities and experiences are valued.
Unfortunately, today’s education system treats education as a competitive market and learning as a means to a narrowly defined end. When decisions are driven by standardisation, ranking and market forces, it erodes trust, sidelines creativity and reinforces exclusion.
The Green Party champions an education approach grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi and universal human rights, where inclusion is foundational. This system honours tino rangatiratanga, embraces te reo Māori and mātauranga Māori, and ensures Māori voices and communities are central to decision making. Disabled people, rainbow communities, migrants and refugees, and others facing structural barriers are fully supported to learn, belong and thrive. Educators’ voices and expertise are central to decisions at all levels.
In the well-resourced system we will build, education supports lifelong learning, strengthens wellbeing, and is a force for transformation of individuals, communities
and society as a whole.
Powering Aotearoa with affordable renewable energy
The Green Party will fix our broken power system so that
people, not profits, come first.
Aotearoa can be a nation with energy independence, where everyone has access to affordable, reliable, clean renewable energy. The Green Party will ensure our energy system prioritises public good, so the benefits of our renewable resources stay with people, rather than driving corporate profit.
Our reliance on both fossil fuels and a profit-driven market exposes households to globalshocks and rising costs. Instead of fixing these, the current Government has reopened fossil fuel drilling, handed out fossil fuel subsidies and slowed the transition to clean, homegrown energy that we urgently need. Regular people are left paying more for a system that serves corporate interests first.
The Green Party will speed up the electrification of our energy system and fix the rules of the energy market so public wellbeing comes before corporate profits. We will grow renewable generation like wind and solar, support community- and Māori-led energy projects, and improve energy efficiency so homes are warmer and bills are lower. Rural communities and farms can be more resilient, affordable and efficient by shifting to electric powered machines.
By ending our dependence on fossil fuels and putting communities in charge of their energy, we can build a fairer, more resilient future where clean energy is locally controlled and where everyone can afford to warm their
homes.
Protecting and restoring nature
The Green Party stands for a healthy environment as the foundation of healthy communities.
In Aotearoa, our environment is the foundation of our communities and our identity. We all rely on clean rivers for safe drinking water. Our native forests and wetlands help reduce flooding. Healthy soils and abundant oceans provide kai. When our freshwater, native bush and moana thrive, we thrive too.
Luxon’s coalition Government has been the most environmentally damaging in a generation, prioritising private profit at the expense of te taiao (nature).
They have fast-tracked destructive mining projects in wild places and scrapped our Ministry for the Environment. They have changed laws to more easily allow the killing of native wildlife where it stands in the way of development, and allowed rivers, lakes and groundwater to become more polluted. Environmental laws have been gutted,
alongside the dismantling of shared decision-making processes that honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
The Green Party will strengthen environmental protections, uphold Te Tiriti and restore te taiao. Protection and restoration of our environment is the foundation of our future.
A regenerative approach that puts people and nature first
The Green Party will support sustainable farming and forestry that protects our environment, communities and livelihoods.
We can have a thriving, sustainable food and fibre sector that prioritises mātauranga food production, creates food security, keeps our waterways healthy and provides good jobs for our rural communities.
But for decades, successive governments have encouraged increasingly intensive farming and forestry, prioritising short-term profits over long-term wellbeing. Industrial dairying is our biggest climate polluter and contaminates our drinking water with nitrates. Family-run businesses struggle while large corporate farms profit at the expense of people and planet. Weak rules for forestry have allowed slash to devastate communities when heavy rain hits, damaging homes, infrastructure and waterways. Rural communities are left to clean up the mess.
Solutions exist. The Green Party has campaigned for decades to feed our communities, while reducing the negative impacts of agriculture on nature and the climate. We championed a new regulatory approach to help the organic sector grow.
It’s time to support Aotearoa to shift to regenerative farming and forestry. The Green Party will help farmers phase down intensive practices and ensure the forestry sector can provide good jobs, while also protecting communities and waterways.
Healthy water for drinking, swimming and gathering kai
The Green Party will put the health of freshwater and communities first.
Our rivers and lakes should be clean and teeming with life. Everyone should be able to turn on their tap knowing their water is safe to drink, swim in their local awa (river) without getting sick and fish or gather kai from waterways. Clean, healthy freshwater is the foundation of the health of our people and our environment.
Aotearoa has lost most of its wetlands, and many of our lakes and rivers are in extremely poor health. Luxon’s coalition Government has accelerated this decline by scrapping many protections for freshwater, stopping council plans to restore waterways and weakening standards for wastewater discharges. Meanwhile, many communities can’t drink what comes out of their tap, face regular boil water notices or can’t swim in their local awa.
These have been deliberate choices to prioritise a wealthy few over the wellbeing of everyone. While polluters profit, communities pay the price through unsafe drinking water, polluted swimming holes and native fish like whitebait and tuna (eels) are threatened with extinction.
The Green Party will reverse the decline in the health of our freshwater with strong controls on pollution, support for more sustainable farming, and action to restore wetlands, lakes, and rivers. We will ensure everyone has access to safe drinking water.
For a more equal Aoteaora
The Green Party will take action to advance gender equality and ensure women and gender minorities are respected and treated fairly.
Aotearoa has made decent progress to make this reality come to fruition, but we have a way to go before women and gender minorities can be truly equal in this country. Life is unfair and unsafe for too many – single mothers are vulnerable to hardship and homelessness, gender-based violence is increasing, and women continue to get paid less than men for equal work.
Changes the coalition Government have made have worsened the position of many women and gender minorities. The Government’s changes to pay equity shifted the goal posts and balanced their budget on the backs of our lowest paid working women. Wāhine Māori are overrepresented in the justice system for crimes of poverty, worsened by the coalition Government’s policies. Gender minorities have been attacked and used as a political distraction by Government parties.
The Green Party are proud of our legacy championing solutions to the inequities women and gender minorities face. In Government we championed the first-ever plan to eliminate family violence and sexual violence, Te Aorerekura. We worked with the former Government on pay equity legislation, getting ACC to cover birth injuries, and extending parental leave.
But there is more to do. We will undo the Government’s changes to pay equity to ensure working women are paid fairly. We will work with wāhine Māori to address disparities and injustices in health, justice, work and pay, learning from the ongoing Mana Wāhine Waitangi Tribunal inquiry. We will fund treatment and diagnosis of pelvic pain including endometriosis and properly resource front-line organisations to end family and sexual violence in Aotearoa.
Ensuring women and gender minorities are safe, respected and valued in Aotearoa benefits all of us. The time to act is now.
A safer, greener, fairer future for people and planet
The Green Party will ensure that Aotearoa always stands up for what’s right on the world stage.
Aotearoa can be a global voice for peace, freedom, democracy, justice, global solidarity and collective action on climate change.
Unfortunately, every corner of our planet is threatened by war, the climate crisis and the rise of authoritarian regimes.
Aotearoa was once an independent voice against nuclear weapons and American militarism. But the Luxon Government has instead turned a blind eye to atrocities and authoritarians and has deepened our military integration with the United States.
Aotearoa must challenge the imperialist ambitions of aspiring powers that plunge the lives of ordinary people into chaos and hardship — not join them.
The Green Party will take an independent and principled approach to foreign affairs and trade that sees Aotearoa leading the world on climate action, nature protection and Indigenous and human rights
We will work with our Pacific neighbours to create a safer, greener, more just world. Together, we must uphold the international rules of law and our collective obligations for each other and the planet.
The Green Party will always work to support communities facing conflict, human rights abuses, the destruction of nature and the worsening impacts of climate change
Accessible care to support everyone’s health
The Green Party will ensure our health care system is equitable, accessible and properly supported.
Aotearoa has enough to ensure that everyone, everywhere can access timely health care from a supported workforce.
But for years successive governments have underinvested in health services, leading to lengthy wait times and unsafe conditions for the health workers who look after us. Hospitals are understaffed, and GP clinics — important for helping people stay well, not just get better — are so stretched they are closing their doors to new enrolments.
The current Government has reversed decades of progress to provide equitable health care for Māori. Māori are forced into a health system that underserves them and is
misaligned with their hauora aspirations.
Private provider costs are locking whānau out of primary health care. This causes health issues to unnecessarily escalate because they are not detected early. Hauora Māori and social service providers are underfunded and restricted by overly prescriptive contracts.
Good health allows all of us to live enjoyable, meaningful lives. The Green Party will expand access to essential primary and dental care. We will work with and fund kaupapa Māori approaches to end health inequities.
Our plans for children, housing, incomes, energy and transport will all support people to keep well by ensuring everyone can access safe, warm homes, nutritious kai and a transport system that encourages active ways of getting around.
It’s time to put a fence at the top of the cliff and support people so they don’t have to rely on ambulances at the bottom.
Safe, warm and affordable homes for everyone
The Green Party is the only party with a credible plan to ensure everyone can afford a warm and safe place to call home.
We all need somewhere to call home – a place to rest, to share with our loved ones, to make a life, or to watch our kids grow up.
A warm, safe home is a basic right. But successive governments have allowed housing to become a get rich scheme for a lucky few, and a source of misery and expense for hundreds of thousands of others.
Far too many families are forced to pay through the roof to rent homes that make us sick, and a generation has been locked out of ever owning their own home. This didn’t happen by accident. It is the consequence of decisions made by successive governments to privilege the wealthy few at our expense.
The Green Party will fix renting to make healthy homes affordable for all of us, and put the interests of people before those of property speculators and investment landlords. We will build thousands more warm, sustainable and affordable homes in the places people want to live.
Welcoming, safe and fair pathways to make Aotearoa home
The Green Party will make sure that everyone who comes to Aotearoa is treated with respect and dignity.
Migrant workers are not disposable, and deserve a fair go to settle in Aotearoa. If any one of us feared for our life or our family or strived for a better life, we’d hope that we’d be supported to take that big step.
But because of the rules put in place by successive governments, too many migrants and refugees are exploited, denied basic rights and unfairly targeted by immigration compliance officers.
Meanwhile, multimillionaire investors are exempt from many of the same immigration requirements that stop ordinary workers from putting roots down in their community.
The current coalition Government wants you to turn against your migrant neighbour, instead of the billionaires wrecking the planet.
The Green Party will create fair and achievable pathways to residency for all people coming here to work, ensure nobody is unfairly separated from their families or their communities, and scrap the rules that fuel exploitation and abuse.
The Green Party will ensure that asylum seekers arriving in Aotearoa after escaping war or persecution are treated with dignity, and supported to rebuild their lives as part of our communities.
Liveable incomes made possible through a fair tax system
The Green Party will guarantee a decent income for all and pay for it with a fair tax system.
No matter what we do or where we live, everyone should have enough to put food on the table, a safe place to call home and the ability to live a good life.
There is enough for everyone to be well, but right now, thousands of children are going to bed hungry. Families are struggling to pay the rent or mortgage and keep their homes warm. Students are forced to skip meals to make ends meet. The cost of living is only getting tougher under this Government.
The resources we need to lift every family out of poverty are already there. But the Luxon Government has prioritised tax cuts for wealthy landlords and their rich corporate mates instead. This is a political choice.
The Green Party will transform our social welfare systems and create tens of thousands of jobs, so families are looked after at every stage of life.
The Green Party will guarantee a liveable income for everyone. Whether you’re in work, unemployed, disabled, sick, a caregiver or a student, we will ensure you can pay the bills and live a decent life. We can pay for it by making big corporations and the wealthy few pay their fair share in tax.
Keeping communities safe through prevention and rehabilitation
The Green Party will make our communities safer by addressing the drivers of crime.
Our approach is to prevent harm happening in the first place. We will reform the justice system to make it fair, just and equitable.
The current Government’s approach of packing prisons, restricting what judges can decide and neglecting much-needed rehabilitation only causes more harm and hardship.
Our communities are safer when everyone, especially young people, have access to the basics: food, health care, inclusive education, adequate incomes and a safe home environment.
The Green Party will keep our communities safe by prioritising rehabilitation, strengthening true accountability and tackling bias and discrimination in the justice system. Our policies to provide mental health and addiction services, safe and warm housing, and adequate incomes for all will help to address the root causes of crime.
Each person deserves to live free from violence, harm and discrimination. People should not be punished for being poor. We need a justice system that supports this basic premise.
Empowering local democracy
The Green Party will back local government to deliver community wellbeing.
Local government plays a vital role in shaping everyday life. When local democracy is strong, communities are stronger too.
Unfortunately, local government is under strain. Councils face growing financial pressure. Democratic engagement is declining and tino rangatiratanga is often sidelined in community decision-making.
At the same time, councils are the frontline of many challenges we face, from climate change to a lack of affordable homes. They are being loaded with new responsibilities — like emergency management — without the proper funding or support to do the job.
This has left councils forced to increase rates and charges to cover basic costs, when communities are already struggling with the high cost of living.
The Green Party will strengthen local democracy and rebuild trust in local decision-making through fairer elections, stronger participation and more community-led processes. We will provide fair and sustainable funding tools, and ensure community wellbeing is at the heart of what local government delivers.
We will work with local government — not against it — and treat councils with the respect they deserve as the democratic voice of their communities. By backing local democracy, we can ensure decisions are made by communities, not for them.
By Māori, for Māori
The Green Party will support Māori to make decisions about the destiny of their own whānau, hapū and iwi.
Tangata whenua lived undisturbed for centuries as hapū, creating tikanga unique to the whenua and focusing on the health and sustainability of their whakapapa. When tangata whenua thrive, so does everyone who lives in Aotearoa. Supporting ongoing kaupapa Māori approaches for Māori to fulfil their aspirations was affirmed and guaranteed by Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
When Te Tiriti was signed, it was assured that the relationship between tangata whenua and the Crown would mean no change in the way Māori choose to live their lives. However, successive governments continue to implement harmful actions which have eroded Māori social structures, contributed to the loss of traditional knowledge and created intergenerational inequities across many key metrics.
The current Government’s legislative assaults have targeted tangata whenua from all sides. They have consistently ignored independent experts, the Waitangi Tribunal and their own advisors, who have warned that their actions will only deepen existing inequities and contribute to further racial divides.
It is time to remove the burden from Māori to keep reminding the Crown of their promises. The Crown must take accountability for their ongoing injustices against Te Tiriti and for using te iwi Māori as a political football.
The Green Party supports tangata whenua-led processes, actions and decision-making by devolving power and investing resources in all matters that affect Māori. We know that Te Tiriti and democracy are not contradictory, but complementary.
Returning whenua to its kaitiaki, and facilitating ‘by Māori, for Māori’ solutions to target inequities are ways we can uphold Te Tiriti while honouring the democracy that Aotearoa should be founded on.
A safe, supportive and accessible care system
The Green Party will work to address the drivers of poor mental health, and ensure everyone can get safe, culturally relevant care when they need it.
Aotearoa should be a place where anyone in distress can access support, no matter where they are.
But right now, demand is skyrocketing, services are fragmented and workforce shortages are leading to long wait times and staff burnout. Prioritising private care in the mental health sector has led to increased costs and wait times too.
Our high rates of social inequality, child poverty, family violence, homelessness and climate anxiety are driving mental distress in our communities, particularly for young people.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We have the tools to support liveable incomes, provide trauma support and end homelessness in this country to promote better mental health.
We know what we need to do to face the existential threat of climate change head-on.
The Green Party will expand free services so cost is never a barrier. We will provide more funding to kaupapa Māori and Māori centred youth services so care is culturally relevant to our communities.
The mental health workforce will receive more support, staffing and funding to reduce burnout. This will allow harmful practices like seclusion to be phased out, to ensure acute mental health care is rehabilitative, not harmful.
Abundant oceans teeming New Zealanders with kaimoana
The Green Party will restore the mauri (life force) of our moana through bold marine protection initiatives.
The vast moana surrounding Aotearoa is a taonga. New Zealanders deserve to have healthy and thriving oceans, with abundant marine life that provides sustainable kaimoana.
Right now, our oceans are under severe stress. Overfishing, destructive bottom trawling, plastic pollution and climate change have driven marine ecosystems towards collapse. Iconic species like tipa (scallops) and koura (crayfish) are now functionally extinct in some places. Across the country, whole communities can’t access local kaimoana because decades of overfishing has plundered stocks for profit.
The current Government has relentlessly prioritised short-term commercial profits over long-term ocean health. They have cut industry levies, allowed fishing in high-protection areas, delayed bans on bottom trawling and proposed drastic changes that would reverse our fisheries regulations.
The Green Party will always put the health of our oceans above corporate interests. We will place Te Tiriti o Waitangi at the centre of our approach to restoring the abundance of our moana. We will work towards every New Zealander enjoying the right to gather kaimoana and experiencing abundant marine life for generations to come.
Cultivating Kiwi connections around the world
The Green Party will ensure all New Zealanders living overseas can feel connected to home.
More and more New Zealanders are leaving for overseas, particularly as a result of the current Government’s choices.
The Luxon Government has forgotten that they are supposed to represent the 15% of New Zealanders who live overseas too. While the cost of living has hit hard around the world, they decided to increase interest rates on student loans for New Zealanders overseas, making it harder for them to come home.
The Green Party understands that Aotearoa is about all its people, wherever in the world they are. We will ensure everyone living overseas is meaningfully connected to home, and can continue to have a say in our democracy. We will support tangata whenua to ensure they can always return to their turangawaewae, no matter where they were born.
Wherever we are in the world, Aotearoa is a special place that we should all feel connected to. It’s time we took a compassionate approach to all our whānau living overseas.
Deepening connections and uplifting communities
The Green Party will strengthen the relationship between Aotearoa and the Pacific through partnership grounded in respect, reciprocity and shared prosperity.
Aotearoa stands as a Pacific nation, grounded in deep and enduring whakapapa connections with Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa.
Pacific Peoples are central to our shared future. Their innovation, leadership and cultural intelligence will help shape a sustainable, inclusive and thriving Aotearoa.
Pacific Peoples are one of our most youthful and fastest-growing communities, yet systemic barriers mean too many face challenges in employment, housing, education and health. Current visa rules make it hard for Pacific people to visit their family here in Aotearoa. Too many Pacific workers are denied the dignity, protections and fair conditions they deserve.
Persistent inequities and underinvestment threaten to hold back prosperity and undermine our relationship with the wider Pacific. The current Government has cut climate aid funding and slashed targeted funding for Pacific initiatives.
This term the Green Party helped restore citizenship for thousands of Samoans by passing the Citizenship (Western Samoa Restoration) Amendment Act, securing a historic win for Pacific justice. But there is still much more work to do.
It’s time for Aotearoa to show our Pacific identity with meaningful action that uplifts Pacific leadership, strengthens communities and deepens our relationships across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa.
Strong essential services accessible to everyone
The Green Party will make sure that public services support the public good.
Investing in public services means investing in all of us. Public services are the way we make sure every person, whānau and community can live with dignity, security and real opportunity — not just those who can afford to pay.
For too long, underinvestment and privatisation have left essential systems stretched, fragmented and harder to access. Public services should be treated as investments in our shared future, not costs to cut. The Green Party will ensure that healthcare, education, housing, infrastructure and support for families are recognised as public goods that are planned and funded to meet people’s needs, not shaped around private profit.
Aotearoa has enough to properly invest in the services and infrastructure everyone relies on and to ensure these services stay in public hands. Strong public services also require a strong, capable and independent public sector with a commitment to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Aotearoa can have an economy that works for all of us, where collective resources are used to improve quality of life, care for te taiao and give every community what it needs to thrive.
Rainbow communities thriving with freedom, equality and respect
The Green Party will nurture an Aotearoa where everyone belongs and enjoys a safe,healthy and happy life.
All New Zealanders deserve to live with dignity, safety and the freedom to be themselves in a community where they belong. For takatāpui, rainbow, MVPFAFF+ and Pacific LGBTQI+, trans, non-binary and intersex people, this means more than symbolic support.
It means celebrating the joy of rainbow communities as well as addressing the inequities many experience. It means our public services must care for, include and uphold the mana of rainbow people. The deeply connected relationships between rainbow identities, whakapapa and whānau must also be acknowledged and allowed to thrive.
Barriers that stop people participating fully in their communities must be removed. Some Rainbow communities — including,takatāpui, MVPFAFF+ and Pacific LGBTQI+ communities, disabled rainbow people, migrants, refugees, young people and intersex people — face overlapping and compounding barriers to a healthy life that must be recognised and addressed.
The Green Party believes that rainbow health care should be shaped by compassion, evidence and aroha — not fear or political division.
Decisions that affect communities should be made with them, not imposed on them. The Green Party will put people at the heart of political decision-making, ensuring those most impacted by policy are heard.
Happy, healthy and supported
The Green Party will uphold the mana of seniors by prioritising the support that enables equitable and fulfilling lives.
Seniors have cared for us and served their communities. Many continue to do so during retirement.
Every senior should be valued, connected and able to live with dignity. However, the Luxon Government has sidelined the needs of seniors, meaning many find themselves without the care and support they need. Some have no one to turn to.
Guided by manaakitanga, whanaungatanga, and led by Te Tiriti o Waitangi, we envision communities where seniors are recognised and celebrated as leaders and knowledge holders, actively shaping whānau, hapū and iwi life. Homes are warm, accessible and designed for connection across generations, while community spaces and marae-based centres foster belonging, learning and support.
We believe those who work in aged care must be respected and rewarded, with secure conditions that enable them to provide high-quality, compassionate support. Care systems should be equitable, culturally grounded, and responsive, ensuring Māori, Pacific Peoples and diverse communities can access services that reflect their values and tikanga.
The Green Party commits to a long-term, non-partisan vision where seniors thrive with dignity and autonomy in vibrant intergenerational communities, ensuring that ageing is a positive process.
Championing small, local enterprise
The Green Party will back local businesses, support sustainable industries and ensure small businesses have a fair shot.
When wealth is kept in local communities, we all benefit. But too often, small businesses face an economy that is stacked against them.
In the last year, we saw the highest number of business liquidations in almost 15 years.
Local suppliers are being squeezed by the supermarket duopoly, while factories are closing and costing jobs. This is the story right across our economy.
Successive governments have built an economy where large international corporates can flourish, sending immense profits offshore, while small and local businesses fight just to keep the lights on.
The Green Party will reform our economic rules to back local businesses, even the playing field, and support sustainable, low-carbon industries to thrive.
Advancing an Aotearoa that embraces Te Tiriti
The Green Party will put Te Tiriti o Waitangi at the heart of a modern Aotearoa founded on real partnership.
We envision an Aotearoa where our governing structures uphold the rangatiratanga of iwi and hapū, providing dignity for all. We can achieve this by demonstrating true partnership between tangata whenua and the Crown as intended by Te Tiriti.
Successive governments have consistently breached Te Tiriti. The resulting harm, lack of accountability and denial of Māori as equal partners mean that the Crown has not upheld its side of the partnership. When Te Tiriti breaches are ongoing, apologies for past harms are not enough.
It is our responsibility to acknowledge, take accountability and put right the wrongdoings committed by the Crown. These have led to worse outcomes for Māori in too many ways. We can’t allow government to pretend that everyone is equal in this country when the exact systems that were created to oppress Māori are still operating.
The Green Party understands that He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti are the foundation for an enduring constitutional partnership. We acknowledge the need for ongoing dialogue to build the awareness, understanding and vision that will give life to Te Tiriti in Aotearoa.
to participate as partners rather than as advisors.
Opportunities for everyone to learn and grow
The Green Party will support student success by overhauling tertiary education.
We all benefit when somebody takes on tertiary study, contributing original thought and their skills to our communities, hapori (community), country and the world.
Unfortunately, successive governments have forced universities and polytechs to make deep cuts to the courses and services students need to succeed.
At the same time, they have normalised student poverty, leaving students struggling to pay the rent and eat a decent meal.
Choosing to study shouldn’t be a commitment to years of stress and hardship. Tertiary education should be the springboard into a meaningful career and the expansion of
human knowledge.
The Green Party will overhaul the tertiary education sector, so our institutions are sustainable and operate in the public good.
That means a tertiary education system where it’s affordable to study, students get the support they need to succeed, and staff have good pay and working conditions so that everyone can benefit from a world-class tertiary education system.
We can ensure that we have a thriving tertiary sector that looks after students, staff and the communities they serve – because tertiary education should be for everyone.
that require work placements pay students at least the living wage.
services, decent pay and conditions for staff, and full participation of disabled students.
tertiary education and a student debt write-off.
Easy, sustainable ways to get around
The Green Party will invest in modern, sustainable, and
affordable transport options.
This will make it easier and cheaper for people to safely get around our cities and regions.
Aotearoa was once joined up by buses and a reliable passenger rail system. Fast, frequent and reliable public transport ran throughout our cities and towns.
After our rail network was sold off for private profit, it was returned to the people in disarray. Successive governments have failed to invest in our rail network or plan for the future in our urban areas. Our cities are now choked with cars, instead of flourishing with people.
People have been priced out of our central cities and now live in the outskirts, where they are poorly served by public transport and don’t have safe walking and biking infrastructure. This has left so many with no option but to rely on cars to get around, adding to congestion and making people vulnerable to oil price shocks.
The Green Party will invest in transport for the future so we all have real options to get around our communities, wherever we live.
We’ll ease congestion with rapid buses and surface light rail in our biggest cities. We will fund councils to build linked-up bike networks, and invest in rail to move people
and freight.
Giving people the freedom to take public transport or bike instead of being forced into cars will provide them immediate relief where it counts — their wallets.
reo and rural schools.
Operating Model.
to EV car-sharing and re-introduce incentives for EV uptake.
Keeping whānau and communities safe
The Green Party will make sure everyone can live a life free from violence and heal from trauma.
Our homes, whānau and communities should be places of aroha, care and safety — free from fear and harm.
Aotearoa has among the highest rates of intimate partner violence, sexual violence and child abuse. This disproportionately harms people in vulnerable professions and communities, and can have long-lasting impacts that are passed down through families. The current Government has stalled progress on work initiated by the Green Party to prevent violence from happening. They have failed to deliver action, instead cutting funding to critical community-led services.
The Green Party will invest in stopping violence before it starts. Our approach will be safe, accessible and integrated, building on people’s strength and with Te Tiriti o Waitangi at its heart. We will mobilise our communities to help and ensure our workforce is skilled and culturally competent.
New Zealanders deserve a government who are committed to ending violence in Aotearoa. We will invest in tailored specialist and whānau centred services for victims and survivors focused on prevention, healing, recovery
and restoration. This includes services to support those who have used violence to take accountability and change their behaviour. The Green Party vision is an Aotearoa where everyone feels safe and supported.
developed by disproportionately impacted groups, including women, Pasifika, rainbow, and disabled
communities
must be free and voluntary, and can be withdrawn at any time while ensuring these changes cause no further harm.
Caring for all animals
that call Aotearoa home
The Green Party will keep animals safe from cruelty and
suffering. Animals should live a happy, comfortable life
free from suffering.
Unfortunately, the Luxon Government has let big industry players write our animal welfare laws, putting corporate greed ahead of the wellbeing of animals. Thousands of farmed animals are suffering unnecessarily because the standards that are meant to protect their safety aren’t being upheld. Cruel and harmful practices are allowed to continue.
The Green Party will protect animals from practices that put profit ahead of their welfare. We have been the parliamentary champion for animal welfare for decades.
In recent years, we have fought for and protected the ban on live exports at sea and won the end to greyhound racing. We have been the leading parliamentary voice against mud farming, cruel imports and the caging of mother pigs.
The Green Party will transform our animal welfare protections to make Aotearoa a place where all animals are treated with care and respect.
We will prioritise ethical treatment so that all animals can live a good life no matter where they live — on farms, in our homes or in the wild.
endangered tuna longfin eels.
Employment protections and
decent pay for all workers
The Green Party will protect rights, improve conditions
and make things fairer for workers.
Work should provide dignity, security and a fair share in the prosperity we create together. Strong employment rights, decent pay and collective voice are essential for a
thriving economy and a healthy democracy.
Workers should be valued for their contribution, protected from exploitation and supported to live well — not just survive.
Right now, too many people are locked into insecure, low-paid or unsafe work. Employers hold the balance of power and unemployment is used to suppress workers’ fair expectations for better pay and conditions.
The current Government has launched a sustained attack on workers’ rights — removing pay equity and fair pay
agreements, cutting health and safety protections, and normalising insecurity.
Meanwhile, industries producing important goods for Aotearoa are forced to close when international corporations aren’t happy with their bottom line.
The Green Party will implement a workforce system built on fairness, democracy and care, restoring the balance between workers and employers. This means standing up
for pay equity, safe workplaces and secure employment.
We will undo this Government’s attacks on workers and build strong, future-focused employment protections. Our plan will support a flourishing economy that works for everyone — through the transition to a sustainable zero carbon economy.
start a new job, but can opt out later. Expand the right to strike, including for breaches of collective agreements and political and solidarity reasons.
for partners, while also increasing payments.
comprehensive pay gap reporting.
Building a sustainable circular economy
The Green Party will take action to reduce waste and
protect the environment from pollution. In a truly sustainable system, nature is protected rather than treated as a dumping ground. We can build a circular economy
where waste is designed out and resources are valued and reused.
Under the current Government, progress towards our zero-waste future has stalled. Action on plastic pollution has ground to a halt, and funding for solutions has dried up.
Corporations continue to make products that won’t last or can’t be repaired, filling up our landfills. Communities are left to deal with the pollution and impacts.
The Green Party has shown what’s possible. In government, we banned single-use plastic bags and reduced food waste going to landfill. We increased the waste levy for the first time in over a decade and introduced mandatory product stewardship schemes.
We also started work on a container return
scheme. We will build on this legacy by holding corporations accountable for the waste they create. This means both reducing waste, and requiring the recovery, recycling, reuse and redistribution of materials.
By supporting communities to lead local solutions, we will accelerate the transition to a sustainable and circular economy that allows people and nature to thrive.
container return scheme, phaseouts of problematic products and comprehensive right-to-repair.
levy to match international best practice and apply a consistent rate across all landfill classes.
resource recovery sector covering all waste streams, including hazardous waste.
national zero-waste strategies, and organic waste reduction, diversion and processing.
Authorised Miriam Ross, Level 8/105 The Terrace, Wellington.
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