Greens Slam Government Council Shake-Up
Councils are already stretched thin. Now the Government wants sweeping reforms pushed through at speed, and the Greens say democracy is paying the price.

Councils are already stretched thin. Now the Government wants sweeping reforms pushed through at speed, and the Greens say democracy is paying the price.

A $6-a-day migrant surcharge won’t fix New Zealand’s infrastructure crisis, but critics say it will make vulnerable workers pay for decades of political failure.
Heavier trucks. Broken roads. Same lobby winning. If you think this is about efficiency, you’re missing who’s really paying the bill.
New Zealand’s 40-year neoliberal experiment has hollowed out the State, inflated housing bubbles and left us dangerously exposed to climate and economic collapse.

New Zealand isn’t a tiny battler — it’s a vast, sparsely populated nation built on State infrastructure, not free market fantasy.

Flood plains. No transport. No sewage. No stormwater. Yet Sunfield was rammed through under fast-track powers. What does that look like to you?

A 256% surge in extreme weather events isn’t some abstract warning anymore. Climate change is smashing infrastructure, driving up food and insurance costs and destabilising everyday life while politicians still refuse to confront the scale of the crisis.

They say they’re investing in protection. The numbers say otherwise. Flood funding is down while the storms keep coming.

We keep pretending each disaster is a one-off. It’s not. And if the AMOC collapses, “unprepared” won’t even begin to cover it.

We didn’t lose control of our water — we gave it away. The latest report just makes it official.