Kia ora, nga mihi nui, kia kouotou, kia ora

I’m Gareth Hughes, the Greens’ candidate for Ohariu and number 11 on the Green party list. Green Mps Metiria Turei and Sue Kedgley give their apologies for being unable to speak tonight. This is only my second candidate event so I may not have been as fluent on policy as they would have been, but I will try my best to encapsulate the Green’s policy and perspective and anyway being a current student hopefully I can explain our positions from personal student understanding.

Quickly though, unlike many on this panel you haven’t seen my face on the parliamentary TV channel so I’ll quickly talk a little about myself. I’m a 26 year old environmentalist and former Greenpeace-activist; a father to my one-year-old son Arlo; And I work for the Greens parliamentary team on climate issues and I am also a part time student here doing a dip grad in politics.

I’ve been asked to speck about social progress and this is an issue which the Greens have a lot to say. Many people assume we are just about protecting frogs, snails or whales but in fact we bring a holistic and long-term understanding to parliament. We are about people and planet. Our charter stresses ecological wisdom, social justice, non-violence and appropriate decision making. I am going to talk briefly on gender equality, rainbow issues, drug prohibition, a bit about student issues and our vision for social development in New Zealand.

What is social progress? The Greens believe it is about fairness and we are applying that across the board – and you can see that in our considerable, (considering we are outside of Government) legislative achievements this term – abolishing discriminatory youth rates that paid young people less than those over 18 even for the same work, the abolition of Section 59, the Mother’s with Babies Bill and also very recently with the amendments to the Emissions Trading Scheme legislation – and the $1 billion we secured for insulating cold, damp kiwi homes – that’s fairness in action!

Lets start with rainbow issues. The Green Party stands for a celebration of diversity and an end to legislative barriers to full participation in society. We are the only party where very MP has always voted in favour of equal rights for everyone, no matter what their gender identity or sexual orientation.

We support developing workplace programmes in the public and private sector to eliminate prejudice, discrimination and harassment. We support extending all legal partnership arrangements and rights to same-sex couples. One tangible expression of this is Metiria Turei’s adoption Bill allowing same sex couples to adopt. - I would like to see members support.

We support creating safe and supportive educational environments and I believe it is outrageous in 2008 that schools can still discriminate on same sex partners at school balls.

The Greens envision a world where women's experience, knowledge, wisdom, work and contribution is recognised, valued and treasured. The Greens want a future where women are safe from violence, abuse and ill health. We believe that Women's unpaid work should be valued and recognised and that women should receive equal pay for work of equal value.

Having recently become a father I think its important women and men with family responsibilities should not be discriminated against and that they should, where possible be able to work without conflict between their paid employment and family responsibilities. This term we’ve made dealing with the challenges of work and whanau easier with the successful introduction of the Flexible Working Hours Bill, where parents can now negotiate with their employer greater flexibility in their working hours and in their work location, especially during school holidays and when children are sick Looking to the future we would like to see reform and an increase in Paid a Parental Leave and significantly the introduction of a Universal Child Benefit, like what was scrapped in 1991.

I hope you can all join with me in celebrating the abolishment of section 59, which was one of Green MP Sue Bradford’s achievements this term, along with the Mothers with Babies Bill that is seeing the next generation protected.

Even when I worked for Greenpeace I often got asked about that “Nandor Tanczos” and drug issues have been one of the major issues focused on in the media – not always responsibly or accurately. Personally I think this is one area we should have seen movement on in the last 3 terms of the Labour-led Government. I celebrate the moves to decriminalise prostitution, the introductions of civil unions and the host of progressive social legislation but the clear gap has been drug reform.

To start with the Greens believe a drug-free lifestyle is the healthiest; and that all drugs can cause harm, regardless of their legal status but not all drug use is problematic. We have to ask what’s fair and recognise that some current government policies do not reduce harm but rather create a further set of problems. Its time to be honest and say that prohibition isn’t working, in fact has never worked. We think the focus should be reducing harm and drug abuse and getting rid of the illegal market.

That’s why we would like to see more funding for drug education programmes in schools and communities to prioritise the prosecution of crimes such as violent offences ahead of personal cannabis possession. We also would like to enable doctors to prescribe cannabis products for severely ill patients. We are not soft on drugs, we are realistic on drugs.

I don’t think I am going to have time to talk about student issues except to say the Greens have the best policy and track record for student issues and we are and have been campaigning strongly for debt relief, lowering student fees and the introduction of a Universal Student Allowance for years and will keep up the pressure.

It’s not a cliché to say NZ is at the crossroads. Come November we have a choice for the direction of the country. The Greens vision is for real sustainability and fairness. Change is in the air and I think the change we need is Green!