20 September 2005

Greens build bridges with businesses

The Green Party is moving swiftly to allay fears in the business community about the role the Greens could play in the next government.

Co-Leaders Rod Donald and Jeanette Fitzsimons are inviting business leaders to a briefing at Parliament next week on Green Party policies, particularly energy, transport, trade and the economy.

"We are concerned that some business leaders have been making negative statements about the contribution the Greens would make in the next Government without the benefit of meeting with us to discuss our policies," Mr Donald says.

"We are therefore inviting a range of key sector leaders to a briefing in Wellington next Tuesday which we hope will be a free and frank discussion," Ms Fitzsimons says.

"This will be an opportunity for business leaders to meet us face-to-face and hear our positions directly. We don't doubt we will have some differences but we would prefer a rational debate based on facts rather than anecdote."

"This is not the first time we have briefed businesses, but in the past it has usually been under the auspices of business associations or organisations such as the Hugo Group, Chen and Palmer and Minter Ellison Rudd Watts," Mr Donald says.

"We hope next week's dialogue will become a regular of our relationship with business leaders. We want the wider business community to understand that we are not the devils they sometimes make us out to be."

"Good businesses have nothing to fear from the Greens. We have a wide range of policies that will be beneficial to those companies that are friendly towards the environment, their staff and the community," Ms Fitzsimons says.

ENDS

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