Southland became host to the Green Party on Saturday (12 Jul) when members of the Deep South Tauraka Waiwai Green Party, including MPs Lan Pham, Scott Willis and Francisco Hernandez, visited Riverton for their annual general meeting and a hui.

Items on the agenda included the need for support and livelihoods for rural communities, the Dunedin Regional Hospital, clean energy, fresh water protections, the impact of the government’s Fast Track approvals regime on the environment, and the government’s move to break up the Polytech collective - Te Pukenga.

Environment Southland Councillor Robert Guyton and Green Party MP Lan Pham discussing water issues at a Green Party local hui, following the group's AGM. Photo: Supplied

Green MP Scott Willis told the Southland App that one of the big issues in our region was the lack of support and sustainable industries for rural communities.

"Our recently released Green Budget has a detailed plan for sustainable jobs based around clean energy and this includes reinvigorating of the Jobs for Nature programme."

"This was a Greens-initiative that the previous Government took up, resulting in jobs in areas such as the Wilding Conifer Management Strategy," Willis said.

"The current Government has pulled the pin on that, along with the jobs that were part of it."

"Letting wilding pines run rampant again makes no sense," he said.

Willis said the Greens also have a plan to prioritise sustainable industries that would allow rural communities to thrive while also addressing the energy hardship that many households faced, with renewable energy playing a core role.

“We also recognise that people of our region have been crying out for a new hospital for years, and we've had enough of a Government that makes promises about it and then breaks them time and again, trying to fob us off with half-pie solutions."

"Our party has committed to working towards a full spec hospital for the deep South, and we have made provision for these plans in the Green Budget,” he said.