The Greens go from strength to strength in terms of producing clever and smart policy that will attract enough soft urban blue vote while maintaining their environmental base to hit 15%.
Yesterdays announcement of a ‘Green Card’ for students is a remodelling of the ‘Gold Card’ Winston gave his voter base. John Minto proposed free public transport for Aucklanders in his Mayoral Race campaign last year and it’s an idea who time has come.
Transport costs blight the poor in a way they don’t for Auckland’s middle classes. The problem with groups like Generation Zero is that they want a massive investment of tax money to expand the current public transport system without any reduction in public transport pricing. It’s effectively a massive public money subsidy for the middle classes to get out of their cars and onto buses. That’s lovely for the leafy suburbs hipster Generation Zero recruit most of their support from, but does sweet fuck all for social inequality in the poorer areas of Auckland.
That’s why the Greens proposed Green Card is such a step in the right direction. Free off peak travel for students is a great first start…
The Green Party is promising a student “green card” equivalent of the pensioners’ gold card giving free off peak public transport to help keep living costs down.
Co-leader Metiria Turei and Russel Norman released the policy today at Auckland University saying it would improve public transport, benefit the environment and help take cars off the road.
“We will give all tertiary students and apprentices free off-peak travel on buses, trains and ferries, through a Student Green Card,” Turei said.
Transport costs were significant for students, with a 2011 survey by the university students association showing 67 per cent were spending on public transport with an average cost of $35.40 a week.
In Auckland that cost rose to $40.50 a week.
Some cities already recognised the need to help students in this way, and Palmerston North had provided free unlimited travel to students and staff on urban buses since 2004.
In Auckland they already received a 35 per cent discount on some fares.
The Greens’ policy would cover all students attending universities, wananga, polytechnics and private training establishments as well as those in apprenticeships.
Norman said estimated more than 350,000 students could benefit from the plan, which would cost between $20m and $30m a year.
…now all we have to do is include beneficiaries onto the Green Card and we can go some way to bringing inequality intro the public transport debate. Making things easier for ethical hipsters to travel on buses is nice, extending such largesse to those in actual poverty would be nicer.
The Greens are on track to hit 15% this election.
This is indeed a good first start, that considers balancing the distribution of commuting. 70% of students surveyed would use this a survey has shown (I understand a survey by the Green party).
It’s great that you remind us of Minto’s mayoralty pledges for free public transport. I do like this policy also.
I think it’s well worth getting behind the Greens on this because if we can implement this then we can implement extending this policy further. It’s been shown to work really well in Parm. North, and has also reduced the use of cars very significantly (by about 30% there). Our traffic jams are always the worst when tertiary institutions are in term, and it will help for this. I have especially in the last few years (as someone working in the tertiary sector) seen many students not attending their courses because they can’t afford their public transport costs – it’s usually PI/Maori students too from South Auckland, and this breaks my heart to be honest. This policy will help a lot with this too.
Also, one thing that is often taken for granted by other progressive parties and proponents is how their fairer policies like this can all be paid for. I would like a Robin Hood/Hone Heke tax but I think it’s a long way off to achieving that with how the majority of NZ-ers vote. The Greens have long called for higher taxes for the highest earners (higher than Labour), a capital gains tax (which Labour has taken on board lately also), climate tax (for polluters with tax cuts for all households), and not wasting money on new motorways (as that as research shows only increases pollution…). I think these funding sources and others by them will help to pay for these things, namely in this case the free transport for students. Add to this their living wage and living-level benefits for those not in work, their goal of getting rid of student fees, funding all tertiary courses equally much better, and these policies are a win-win situation, as much as being in coalition with Labour will allow.
The Greens are trying to be practical here and aim for greater progressive policies and are to me realistic in our current political conditions towards getting them achieved. They will get there in the end, will keep listening to others (with their core philosophy of consensus and consensus-based policy development they’ve had for years (face-to-face and online)) and they have my vote and they have come of age and are ready to be part of the next government.
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