Greens have no confidence in a budget that steals our future

The Green Party will move a no confidence motion in the Labour-led Government on the basis that the 2003-04 Budget deliberately robs poverty-stricken kids, low income families and students of a stake in the future of their country.

"The Government had the opportunity today to future-proof our economy, strengthen our social fabric and protect our environment," Green Co-leader Rod Donald said today. "The fact that they opted instead for think-big spending and investment defies common-sense.

"The Government should invest in the children of New Zealand, 30 per cent of whom still live in poverty, rather than put its faith in the resilience of the global casino economy.

"Future generations will pay a very high price for our failure to help these kids now, at a time when we have the money to do so.

"This Government's fixation with economic growth has blinded it to the consequence of ignoring the children who will have to deliver the productivity and the human capability to meet future demands.

"This is a Government that only seems to learn from repeated mistakes. It gives me no pleasure to point out that the Greens have been warning for years of the folly of various Governments' transport priorities, energy policies, biosecurity regimes and overseas investment strategies.

"We hope that the Government will learn before it is too late that that Green answers to the questions it is struggling with are in fact long-term solutions, based on commonsense, practicality and sustainability."

Rod Donald, on behalf of the Green Party, will move the following motion in the House during the Budget debate:

"This House has no confidence in the Labour-led minority Government because of its failure to invest in a self reliant economy, its refusal to properly nurture a just society and its unwillingness to seriously protect the environment."

(Rod Donald is due to deliver his Budget speech at approx. 4:05pm.)

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