Green MP Teanau Tuiono: Election about fight to make world better for every single person

Green MPs and supporters listen to co-leader James Shaw speak at the party's AGM in Auckland on Saturday. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

OPINION

Over the weekend the Green Party held its AGM. I was stoked to attend with my fellow MPs and candidates and get energised and excited for the next few months.

It was awesome to look around the room and see a group of people who are so dedicated to making Aotearoa better for every single person.

In the past two terms of government, we’ve taken more climate action than the previous three decades of governments combined.

I believe if people want to end poverty, guarantee everyone a warm home, and take strong climate action then only the Greens are the answer.

We know our progress is the result of the choices we make together. Choices based on the understanding we are all connected.

If there’s just one child going to bed hungry tonight, their whānau matters to all of us.

If there is a nurse, a midwife, a teacher or a social worker struggling to make ends meet and cutting back on heating their home, we are all worse off.

What I think most other political parties don’t understand is that this election is not about them. It is not about the polls or the soundbites. It is not about holding on to the reins of power just for the sake of it.

It is about all of us, the people of Aotearoa, and the fight to make the world better for every single person.

Already we have released our income guarantee and our pledge to renters.

Two policies - that we say when combined - would end poverty in Aotearoa. No ifs or buts about it.

Post-Covid food banks have been experiencing unprecedented demand. A May survey showed rising prices, low incomes and unemployment were the most common reasons people used food banks.

And, we know that expensive, unhealthy housing is one of the main causes of poverty.

Last month we put out a call for stories about people’s renting experiences in Aotearoa. We got back 700 stories that shocked but didn’t surprise.

We heard stories of families forced to pay through the roof to live in cold, damp and mouldy homes that make them and their children sick. Landlords raising rents while refusing time and time again to fix people’s homes to bring them up to even the most basic of standards.

That is why the Greens made a pledge to the 1.4 million people who rent in Aotearoa that we would fix this.

The solutions are simple: controls on rent increases, a rental warrant of fitness, and thousands more new homes. In the first 100 days of a new government, we will introduce a Renters’ Rights Bill to give effect to these changes.

With our public housing build policy, we can clear the public housing waitlist in just five years.

Our income guarantee means 95 per cent of people will pay less tax. It also ensures that no matter what, your income will never fall below $385 a week, after tax. For couples, our income guarantee will be at least $770, and a single parent will always have an income of at least $735.

Plus parents and caregivers will get the support they need with a top-up of up to $215 every week for the first child, and $135 a week for every other child. Plus, an additional universal top-up of $140 a week for every child under 3.

These two policies together will lift every single person out of poverty.

We know what is necessary to end poverty, guarantee everyone a decent place to make a home and take the boldest possible climate action.

We just need to get on with it!

Teanau Tuiono is a Green list MP based in Palmerston North. This is his last column before the election.