Kia ora koutou katoa.
Welcome!
And thank you – everyone – for joining us today as we bring to a close what has been a truly extraordinary campaign…
During an extraordinary year.
COVID-19 has changed everything.
Our day to day lives have looked awfully different over the past six months, amid lock-downs and ongoing restrictions to protect public health.
But the fact that we are able to be here today, together, to wrap up our campaign, shows just how well we have done as a country.
That success is all of ours to share.
But we cannot take anything for granted.
In three days’ time, you have an incredibly important decision to make.
Of course, every three years people like me get up and tell you that, “this election is critical! And we need your support!”
But this election really is critical!
Because the decisions that the next Parliament, and the next Government make, will be orders of magnitude more significant and far-reaching than even the very significant decisions that government makes when there isn’t a global pandemic!
The next government will not only determine how effectively we manage COVID-19, it will shape the destiny of this country for decades to come.
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Today, Marama and I will be outlining the Green response to COVID-19 – in the short-term, and well beyond.
And why it is absolutely vital that the Green Party are part of the next Government.
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Throughout COVID-19, the Green Party has backed our health experts.
We’ve listened to the science.
And we’ve worked to ensure that our communities have what they need to get through.
We have some big decisions to make over the coming months.
These decisions must be made on the basis of the same expert advice which have allowed us to return to some semblance of normality – in stark contrast to most other countries on Earth.
As much as other parties attempt to make it so – these are not political decisions.
They are health decisions.
Aotearoa needs people at the helm of the next Government who are willing to listen to experts and do what’s required to keep us safe.
The Labour-Green response to COVID-19 has proven that we are the partnership that will do just that.
Jacinda Ardern’s leadership has been exemplary.
Working as part of the Government, we also pushed hard to make sure no one was left behind in the rush to respond.
Whether it was getting more funding to family and sexual violence services to better match the struggles of families during the pandemic…
Or getting a six-month freeze on residential rent increases…
Or making sure we don’t make climate change worse in the rush to get economic recovery projects going…
Or securing $1.3 billion in Jobs for Nature, so that our economic recovery also helps our wild places and our native birds to recover too…
The Greens took a stand for our long-term future as we dealt with the near-term crisis.
But the importance of this election goes well beyond the current crisis.
Right now, as a country, we are investing enormous sums of money in preventing what would otherwise be the deepest recession in a century.
The reality is that we are not going to see this kind of upfront investment in our communities, again, anytime soon.
So we have both an extraordinary opportunity and a great responsibility.
If we make good choices now, then in the years to come, we will be able to reflect on this time and say that we shaped this crisis and took from it some lasting good for our country.
And that we did that, by addressing the long-term crises which existed well before COVID-19 came to our shores…
Like the climate crisis, which puts all of our futures at risk…
Like the biodiversity crisis, which threatens our dawn chorus and our native wildlife…
And the crisis of deepening poverty in Aotearoa.
At this election, I can confidently say that the Green Party is the only party putting forward proposals that are actually bold enough to meet the scale of the challenges we face…
That actually do ensure that we ‘build back better’ after COVID-19 than we were before.
We know we need to spend to stimulate the economy and get us through this crisis.
But we need to spend wisely and to think ahead.
Which is why the Green Party would build fast, inter-city rail connecting our cities to the regions…
And why we would create reliable public transport systems, which are affordable and accessible to everyone…
And why we would invest in getting rooftop solar and batteries into every state-owned home across Aotearoa.
We know we need to create jobs for the post COVID-19 world.
Our plan does that.
But our plan not only creates jobs for the post-COVID-19 world, it also creates jobs for the post-carbon world.
Anything less would be utterly irresponsible towards future generations.
This is our chance!
Our chance to give future generations a liveable planet.
A living environment.
And a living wage!
These priorities are not separate to the COVID-19 response.
They are the COVID-19 response!
And this Saturday, you can make it happen!
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Thank you! And now – with more – here is my co-leader, Marama Davidson!
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