Green Party co-leaders James Shaw during their media conference, over the $11.7 million grant to The Green School. Photo / File
Green Party co-leaders James Shaw during their media conference, over the $11.7 million grant to The Green School. Photo / File
COMMENT
Green Party co-leader James Shaw has just learnt the hard way that if you're holding a shotgun pointed at your feet, for goodness' sake don't touch the trigger.
And if by chance you do, and accidentally shoot one foot, then at least leave the other barrel alone.
Unfortunately, hedidn't. The first shot was backing a project he knew little about purely on the strength of its apparent "greenness"; the second fired via email insisting Taranaki's Green School get funded, or 44 other projects might not.
Whether this was really, as National and ACT detractors claim, an "ultimatum" or, as Shaw relates it, allowing the project's inclusion so it could be properly questioned, is largely irrelevant.
Bottom line, each barrel was a painful mistake. One whose timing, just before an election on which the Greens presence in Parliament depends, could not be worse.
But James Shaw is a decent man. In the normal course of events, he wouldn't dream of going against his party's base philosophy of backing public education over private. So I'm forced to conclude this was one of those brain-explosion moments even the best are prone to when the pressure's on; a moment I'm sure he'll always regret.
Should he be pilloried for it, or his party marked down because of it? No; and here's why:
First, because as soon as the ramifications of his decision were pointed out to him, he apologised unreservedly. How many Ministers have done that lately, without being pushed?
Second, because – as part of a very robust party process – he fronted the Greens membership and explained himself, and again apologised.
Third, because the project did fit the brief of the Covid Recovery Fund, with it's "shovel-ready" focus on jobs, infrastructure, and boosting local economies.
Let's remember two Labour Ministers (Grant Robertson, Finance, and his Associate, David Parker) and NZ First's Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones also backed it – but no-one's questioning their judgement.
And fourthly, because in essence (I suggest) he was reacting against the myriad put-downs and turn-offs and handbrakes that the Greens' coalition partners – particularly NZ First – have been shoving up his nose all term, and he'd obviously had enough.
Bruce Bisset
Okay, politics is by nature adversarial and often nasty with it, and you learn to take the good with the bad and be thankful for the wins you get.
So serving a little tit-for-tat isn't the best excuse. But it is par for the course.
Except, in Shaw's case – or the Greens generally – it isn't. It's very much not how they do business; they're all about politely getting on with doing the job and relying on people to recognise their efforts by their positive results.
Which, if you stop and analyse them, are considerable. Visit the Greens website for a long list of policy wins – many of which have been unfairly claimed by others.
And that's the fifth, and most important, reason why this minor issue – at base little more than a politician being at odds with his own party's policy – should not be made a mountain from which the Greens are pushed.
Even if you think Shaw's actions prove he's less competent than he should be, his mistake was purely of his making.
He may pay for that when the next party conference rolls around. But meanwhile, we still need the Greens in government, to keep it real – and honest.
Honest enough to admit mistakes. Big enough to learn from them.
- Bruce Bisset is a freelance writer and poet. Views expressed are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's.
