Adjournment Debate 2010: Dr Kennedy Graham

2010 has come and gone, at least in a parliamentary sense. I convey the Green Party's thanks to you, Mr Speaker, for your patience, fortitude, and skill in handling this august, if rather unruly, institution.

I thank all staff who labour here to keep us functioning but get no public recognition. Their courtesy and devotion to their jobs is unfailing, and we thank them for making ours not only possible but more pleasant through their good nature.


I acknowledge the ushers who greet us, the security staff who protect us, Bellamy's who feed us, librarians who inform us, and the messengers, travel staff, and everyone in the Clerk's Office, not least the select committee staff, who strive to help us think clearly and sensibly, which is not an easy task. Not least, I thank our own party staff, executive assistants, out-of-Parliament people, and administrative, research, and media staff.

As we bask in the sun and reflect on the year, most will combine a sense of achievement with some apprehension over what we have not achieved, particularly, I think, on climate change from Copenhagen to Cancun. 2010 has seen its human drama around the world and here in New Zealand. We might ask where we are heading as a nation and, indeed, as a global community.

We bipedals are a strange mix of brilliance and stupidity, and I do not mean just the Greens. We flew our first solar-powered plane yet pumped carbon into the atmosphere faster than ever. We trapped antimatter in Cern under Geneva yet we cannot rid ourselves of malaria. We clocked 10 years of continuous space living and it is 41 years since we walked on the moon yet we are killing life here on earth.

Our shrinking global village, more transparent now through WikiLeaks, reveals some oddities as well. Dubai completed the world's tallest building, not much short of a kilometre high into the sky. It is gleaming and beautiful yet it cost $1.5 billion, which could have gone to malaria eradication. A major slump in the rental market has meant that there is vacancy rate of 92 percent. So we have a lot to learn and we do not seem to be learning it in time.

The world has suffered its natural disasters this year: the earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, and China, and our own miracle in Christchurch, where a 7.1 magnitude quake close to the city returned no fatalities. Tragically, we were not so fortunate at Pike River. The volcanic eruption in Iceland gave us a foretaste of the disruption the global community will experience when climate change reaches danger level. Let me assure ACT that such a specific event is not necessarily due to climate change. Neither are the floods in Pakistan and Australia, the forest fires in Russia and Australia, the landslides in Mexico, or the drought in China, Africa, and Africa.

What I do know is that the Optimum Population Trust concludes that Australia is overpopulated and its optimal population may be around 10 million. It may be right; it may be wrong. But it raises issues that can no longer be ignored. It seems that 6.7 billion on the planet may be too many for Earth. Here in New Zealand we remain part of the global problem of unsustainable living, where humanity is overshooting the planet's ecological capacity by 40 percent.

If there is one thing that defines the Green Party, it is sustainability. The truth is we in the Green Party love this country too much to trash it for a few dollars. We prefer to look after it for its intrinsic value.

Five overarching green goals drive our politics in 2010. We promote a smart green economy for New Zealand. We believe a fairer society will be better for everyone, including the rich. We love the land, and we want to protect it. We embrace honest politics, and we cherish safe and healthy food for ourselves and our children. Each Green MP has worked in different ways through 2010 to realise those goals.

The fundamental divide between the Green Party and the Government concerns economic growth. The Government continues to cite economic growth as its mantra, neurotically seeking signs of recovery back to a growth pattern, like a drunkard reaching for the bottle to get through the hangover.

It talks of a balance between economic opportunity and environment responsibility, but continuous growth will never result in balance, rather, a trade-off in which degradation trumps conservation.

This year, the Green Party more assertively promoted ecological economics as the alternative to the traditional neo-classical economics that underpins that growth addiction. The sustainable economics conference we convened in the Legislative Council Chamber just last month brought together economists and environmentalists for a dialogue over the relationship between these policy areas and the need to strike a consensus among parties.

I thank Minister Nick Smith and Labour's David Cunliffe for joining us in agreeing to participate in the dialogue, joining with me on a panel on the political perceptions of sustainability. This could be seen as the beginning of a constructive dialogue between National, Labour, and the Green Party over a 21st century macroeconomic policy that will preserve the planet and bring security and prosperity for all. I do not think there is a more important or constructive thing we could aspire to do together.

Russel Norman voiced the concerns of many Kiwis when it comes to foreign ownership of New Zealand's strategic assets. We were pleased to see the Government keep the current guidelines for the Overseas Investment Office after it originally wanted to weaken the rules. Russel Norman has also critiqued the Government over trade policy, especially the patent absurdities of the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership. We trust that the Government will see the light on this issue next year.

Dave Clendon has been promoting sustainable business throughout the country and has proposed to this House a Sustainable Development Commission. It is time for a fair society.

Metiria Turei's Mind the Gap campaign highlighted the obscene inequalities that have developed here in recent decades and the need for a sense of decency and an egalitarian ethic.

The home insulation programme that Jeannette Fitzsimons pioneered with Labour continues to live under this Government. I shall maintain that cooperation with Minister Brownlee into 2011.

In similar vein, Gareth Hughes' warm and healthy rentals campaign, including a member's bill to that effect, promised to transform for the better the way Kiwis live in their homes.

A successful Supplementary Order Paper by Kevin Hague will ensure that the Health Quality and Safety Commission can rely on public funding.

Catherine Delahunty's proposal for a Disabilities Commissioner persuaded the Government to establish just such an office.

We are working to protect our land. Metiria Turei helped to save our national parks from mining. The Government changed its plans because Kiwis love their parks. I pay a special thanks to the 47,000 who signed her petition.

Public opinion also prompted action to stop factory farming in the Mackenzie Basin, an iconic landscape that most of us want to protect. Russel Norman broke the factory farming story and campaigned alongside environmental and animal welfare groups to save the Mackenzie.

Russel was effective also over the Mangatainoka River. Fonterra reconsidered a plan to dump wastewater in the river after we urged it to show leadership and stop polluting.

Catherine Delahunty persuaded Trademe to join us in saving rain forests and supporting the local timber industry. From this week it will allow the sale of new kwila furniture only with a sustainability certificate.

Kevin Hague is pursuing with the Government a $4 million pilot project to protect New Zealand forests and native species with better pest control. Kevin is also continuing work with the Prime Minister on a national cycleway.

The voting public wants Parliament, above all, to practise honest politics. It was the Green Party, under Metiria Turei's leadership, that led the charge to clean up the system for MP's pay and expenses. Last year the Greens voluntarily released our own expenses. By late 2010, Parliament had agreed to adopt our policy of an independent authority for MP's pay. Metiria also played a role in convincing the Government to put in place campaign spending caps for elections, as well as the MMP referendum.

Keith Locke's Head of State Referenda Bill focused attention on how New Zealand wishes to structure its constitutional arrangements in the 21st century. It will live for another day.

Our intervention on the Courts (Remote Participation) Bill helped to ensure that defendants retain the right to be present in a criminal trial. I pay tribute to Minister Simon Power for his judgment on this issue.

My new Register of Pecuniary Interests of Judges Bill is attracting National and Labour support. I look forward to working with Chris Finlayson on this.

We cherish safe and healthy food. Our animal welfare standards jumped with Sue Kedgley's phase out of sow crates being adopted by the Government. The Green Party was acknowledged for a decade of work to stop the cruelty.

Lest this sound like so much braggadocio, let me assure this House that we do not believe we run the country but we do set the agenda for change and, one day, we shall.