Greens launch manifesto and election slogan, ‘For All of Us’

The Green Party launched its election manifesto at the party’s annual meeting in Auckland.

Green co-leaders Chloe Swarbrick and Marama Davidson also debuted the party’s slogan for the coming election - “For all of us”.

The 43-page manifesto included policies the Greens had already announced, and others it had campaigned on in the past. It was not immediately possible to ascertain which policies had yet to be announced.

The number of policies that the party is able to implement will likely depend on the election result and any coalition negotiations.

The Greens promised to change the country’s Budget process to align with its climate goals.

The Greens also promised to allow the Climate Change Commission to set the supply of Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) units and to phase out industrial allocations for industrial polluters and also forestry offsets.

The Greens would also put a price on agricultural emissions — ending an exemption that has existed since the ETS was created.

Industrial allocation protects some industrial polluters from the full cost of the ETS because the products they produce would become uncompetitive if they were forced to pay their full liability, which would force many of these firms to close.

The exemption is justified because these firms have to compete with international industrial polluters which are exempt from the ETS.

Swarbrick said the ETS needed to be fixed. However, she did not say whether she believed the changes would lead to a higher ETS price, and therefore higher bills for consumers — which is one of the reasons the last Labour Government and the coalition have not moved more quickly to fix some of the scheme’s problems.

The last Labour Government said every $10 increase in the ETS price would increase average annual household costs by about $1.67 per week — or $86.80 over the course of a year. For lower income households, the increase was estimated at $0.88-0.95 per week.

“The ETS is currently broken — it’s not working. And very clearly, it’s also the major thing this Government is relying on to drive emissions down, yet the independent expert Climate Change Commission came out this week, saying as a result of the failure of this Government’s climate policy ... we are now at risk of missing all of our climate targets," Swarbrick said.

Other promises are more niche. The party promised “targeted subsidies for e-cargo bikes”; in the section on animal welfare, the party promised a new “Commissioner for Animals” and an “independent ministry”.

When asked whether this meant a “Ministry for Animals”, Davidson did not say whether it did or it did not — suggesting it was not a priority.

“The manifesto is a proud statement from the party members who have written this policy. And it puts a position on broad issues, where we stand, what we value. You’ve got longer term ambitions on what we value on all of those manifesto commitments,” she said.

On foreign affairs, the party promised to pull New Zealand out of the Five Eyes alliance and never join the Aukus agreement.