as the campaign comes to an end, imnofox went to Pukekohe to make the sell for KilroyNZ as Waikato’s next local MP

“Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou. We’re a third into the term, and yet we’re already closing our third by-election. All government MPs. I don’t know if it’s a sign that the rats are fleeing the sinking ship so soon, but there’s certainly no surprise that we’d see such instability from any coalition with the Liberals, the absent Nats, and Reform. We’ve watched as their internal fighting spills out on the campaign trail, time and time again, with the Reform leader declaring the Prime Minister a backstabber whenever he gets the chance. We’re watching Ministers debate against their own government’s legislation. This is unheard of, and never happened under the last Green government. This unstable and disunited government needs to be taught a lesson. They’re clearly there solely for the baubles of office, and have a totally incoherent policy programme. That’s not what voters want.”

“As I knock on so many doors, as I talk to so many New Zealanders, my resolve to change this disastrous government has only been strengthened. If I can just quote the venerable Norman Kirk, ya’ know, who said that “all Kiwis want is someone to love, somewhere to live, somewhere to work, and something to hope for.” And I think that message also highlights the abject failures of this government. As I knock on doors in this electorate, I hear a populus who have had the hope beaten out of them. As I walk through the streets of this electorate, I see the people who still do not have a place to live, thanks to a government that is totally apathetic to their struggles. As I cycle past the local WINZ office, I see the queue streaming out of the door, thanks to an economy that has not been designed for them. We need to ask ourselves: what motivates us, how we feel, what we aspire to, what kind of country we want Aotearoa to be.”

“We need to bring local decision making back to our communities. We have seen the toxic results of allowing bureaucrats in Wellington make decisions for us. You can just look to the mining taking place on the Karangahake conservation land. The community here yelled and stopped in intense opposition to opening up that gorge, beautiful conservation land, to gold mining. While the communities here made their viewpoint very clear, the National Party let this mining go ahead. Despite being in opposition, the Greens have already taken legislative action to protect that land- because we recognise the hard and persistent work of all these local activists. And if the opposition has done more than the government, those who can move around the levers of power as they please, that is simply a major indictment. We haven’t even seen the National Party candidate out here on the campaign trail, and he has the Prime Minister’s endorsement. Do the Liberal-National alliance really think that they’re that entitled to the electorate? So entitled, that they don’t even have to come out here and campaign? At least- at least the Reform Party had the decency to come out and campaign, even if all they did was fall back to their McCarthyist instincts and lambast the Socialists all day. PineappleCrusher is taking this electorate for granted. The National Party is taking this electorate for granted. Really, it’s up to candidates to earn votes, not just expect them to be dropped in their hands. That’s why we’ve been out here in the community for every hour of every day, spreading and sharing our progressive Green vision for Waikato. We know what work is.” “There are limits to growth. The world is finite, and it’s resources are finite. We have just one planet to live on. You may argue that one day we may colonise another planet, but that’s only a maybe. We need to live sustainably, recognising that infinite economic and material growth is impossible. Otherwise, we will pollute ourselves to extinction. Water is life, and we can’t even take clean drinking water for granted anymore. Our aquifers and groundwater sources are being depleted and polluted, largely by big water bottlers who pay nothing for the privilege. At the same time, our own waterways, especially the Waikato River that is this electorate’s namesake, are becoming so polluted that they are a health and safety hazard. You can’t swim in that river without the risk of getting sick- and that’s unacceptable. Tens of thousands of New Zealanders get sick every year from the Waikato River, and that’s just the number reported to the DHB, with an estimated 200 cases for every reported case going totally unheard of. What happened to that great kiwi birthright‽ I remember, a child, swimming freely in this river without a care. There was no risk to worry about. I didn’t get sick- nobody did. What changed?”

“Over the last few decades, National and Liberal governments have supported the intensification of dairy, up and down the country, especially in the upper Waikato river. Landcorp has been in the process of converting 25,700 hectares of pine forest in the upper Waikato to dairy farms, with plans to introduce another 30,000 cows to the environment. That’s gonna push the Waikato river to its limits. The reality is, we badly need a moratorium on new dairy farm conversions. The planet can’t handle more and more intensified dairy farming. We only need to look at the river to see that. I remember, and it was a while ago now, hearing the National Party’s Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy recognising that we were reaching peak cow. And we have. Even Waikato Federated Farmers agrees that such a moratorium is a good idea. But this government doesn’t care that the current model for agriculture is totally unsustainable. They’re out here with their new Regional Investment Corporation, designed to simply throw out loans and investments to the most rural communities, regardless of the business case, regardless of the environmental harm, regardless of any thought. This shortsighted thinking will bite this entire country in the bottom. It’s the same thinking that thought it justified to slash $621 million of investment in sustainable farming, including millions towards afforestation grants- ya’know, to act as carbon sinks, just to provide the rich for some unnecessary tax cuts at the cost of our country’s environmental future. The fact is, the costs of doing nothing greatly outweigh the costs of investing in adaptation and mitigation now. We all know that agriculture and viticulture will be one of the industries hit hardest by climate change. Action is absolutely necessary now to protect our industry for the future. If only National and Reform could understand that.”

“The same economic paradigm that has allowed our environment to degrade in the way that is has is the same economic paradigm that has left too many of our people out on the streets. There is something fundamentally wrong with our welfare system and how we treat the families who depend on it. It drives people to violence against others and themselves. It keeps children in filthy conditions until they get sick. It tortures and harasses women grieving for their lost babies. We need to restore our welfare system so that everyone has enough to live a healthy life with, lifting thousands of families out of poverty and into a healthy and meaningful life, breaking the cycle of poverty. We need a system of welfare that doesn’t just act as a safety net, full of holes, but a giant trampoline to springboard our friends and whanau out of poverty for good. We need to throw out all sanctions, starting with those that punish mothers and their children for an absent father’s choices. We know that sanctions don’t work, only create more stress, and entrench people’s poverty for good. We need a system that takes the concerns and experiences of beneficiaries seriously. Beneficiaries should no longer be seen as economic burdens, but as our friends and family. Kilroy shares our dedication for a welfare system that treats our most vulnerable New Zealanders with aroha and respect, not the absolute disdain we see from the National Party.”

“To craft that economy that puts people first, we need to work to strengthen our trade unions. The rights of our unions, the organisations that fight the good fight for kiwi battlers, has been slowly eroded after decades of National governance. We need to end anti-union actions by corporations. We need to support the rights of unionised workers to prevent freeloading. We need to reverse the numerous reforms undertaken over the last few decades to weaken and attempt to discredit unions. Employment law reform isn’t just relevant to unions, and we can take action too. Kilroy and the Greens are committed to repealing 90 day trials in their entirety. They are absolutely redundant, they do nothing to increase employment or employment opportunities, and only add extra stress to a ever more vulnerable workforce. We need to increase penalties for employers who violate employment law. We need to allow public transport works to retain their employment situation when their employer business is sold. We need to do this, because the Greens know what workers are worth.”

“And it’s because we know what workers are with that we continue to maintain our full and frank opposition to the dodgy Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, something we can’t say about every party in this race. With great enthusiasm, both National and Reform have sold their voters out and signed us back up to the disastrous TPPA. I remember at the last election, when National campaigned against what they called a travesty of a deal. They told us that the TPPA would take away our national sovereignty, that it would force us to cave to the power of its larger members, and that for those reasons, they could not “in good faith even consider supporting it”. And yet here we are, a third into this term, with the National Party still in full favour of rejoining that deal. What are they gaining for selling us out? Absolutely nothing, judging by this government’s program. I remember when the National Party leader bragged about his party’s hardline stance on the deal the previous term, and that it was the National Party’s persistence last term that left the deal dead and buried. Where is that persistence now? Where is that hardline stance? He told a whole potluck breakfast of voters that it would be a “coalition requirement the TPP be left dead and forgotten”. Some bottom line it was then! What changed for the National Party for them to support a deal that, as they claimed on the campaign trail, throws out our national sovereignty, is a detriment to workers and their position in the economy, would allow foreign governments to breach the rights of Kiwis, and hurts small business with unjust regulations‽ How can you count on the National Party to represent this electorate when they can’t even be expected to hold up their basic bottom-line campaign promises? When the Greens say no to the TPPA, you can count on our word. I am proud that is was under my government that we formally and officially withdrew from that deal. That was a government that stood up for everyday kiwis, against foreign tyrants that seek to prevent this country from regulating in it’s best interests. We can’t let a deal take away our right to regulate to protect our environment, or protect our water sources, or protect our people. That is unacceptable, but it’s exactly what the National Party and the Reform Party have ushered in for us. Greens are fighting tooth and nail to put this deal back in the shredder where it belongs, and we will not stop!”

“Waikato deserves and needs an MP who cares for more than just their own back pocket. Waikato deserves an MP who will stand up for our local conservation land against the powerful mining lobby that has this government wrapped around their finger. Waikato deserves an MP that will fight to clean up our rivers, so that thousands of people aren’t ending up sick just from going for a swim. Waikato deserves an MP who recognises the value of our people and our workers, and will fight to ensure every one of our brothers, sisters, friends, and whanau get to live a safe and healthy life, with food on their plates, and a warm dry home to rest their heads in. Because if I know one thing, I know that a vote for Kilroy in this by-election is a vote to make that vision a reality in Waikato. Grassroots and flaxroots democracy comes from the people, for the people, for our communities. And we have listened to this community. We have heard from a community that wants to put the wellbeing and the mauri of our rivers, our trees, our mountains, our birds, our freshwater fish ahead of cuts and austerity. We’ve heard from a community that wants to ensure that every one of their friends and family doesn’t go hungry, sitting out on the curb. We’ve heard from a community that wants justice, not law and order, to drop our prison population with humane rehabilitative approaches. We’ve heard from a community that wants te Tiriti o Waitangi to be honoured, not just settled, and certainly not disregarded as some candidates would like. Conservation, not exploitation. Rivers clean and healthy, with the fish that live in them and kids that swim in them thriving. A Department of Conservation funded to do it’s job, so that our birds can live free from fear of extinction. Workers getting a fair deal. People and planet, loved. That vision, that bold progressive vision, can only be achieved with strong Green representation in Waikato, and that means a big hearty vote for our passionate and persistent Green candidate in this by-election, the amazing KilroyNZ!”