Co-leader may be Green but not around the gills

You've said your biggest liability was lack of profile. How will you address that?

Russel Norman: My plan is around trying to get into provincial media ... working with local spokespeople and candidates to get some coverage at provincial level.

At a national level we haven't worked out how we are going to divvy up portfolios ... but I have a background in trade policy and obviously know a lot about elections. I will have my own areas of responsibility, as well as being co-leader.

Why did the party choose you?

Norman: They saw me as someone who could take the party to the next stage, broaden our electoral base. Nandor was obviously the main competition and probably suffered from being the messenger. His public perception has been influenced by his message that prohibition (of cannabis) hasn't worked.

You told the conference you'd been careful to avoid "image" obstacles - what have you changed about yourself?

Jeanette Fitzsimons: Working on his (Australian) accent.

Norman: I am aware that I've only been here 10 years so I have tried to be conscious about my accent.

Are you actively trying to get rid of it?

Norman: I haven't actually got a broad Australian accent. I'm trying to be aware of it.

Fitzsimons: It was mainly a joke.

What new issues will the Greens use to connect with new voters?

Norman: When I grew up in the suburbs of Brisbane, nobody had any native trees. When you go into the suburbs of NZ and Australia now you find that people have planted native trees everywhere ... I have a tremendous belief people in the suburbs are very open to Green ideas and there has been something of a paradigm shift. The stuff around rivers and water is becoming more important. The other thing we've had good traction on is safe food.

Fitzsimons: The fact we are talking about really fundamental things like people's housing, people's transport, people's lives will start to get more traction because insecurity is growing, energy insecurity particularly.

Some Greens worry the party spreads too much of a doom and gloom message?

Norman: It is a problem. We have to try and find a balance.

Fitzsimons: We can ease up on that. For years we've been saying don't expect oil to be $10 a barrel for ever and universally available, and that was like the bad news everyone didn't want to hear. Now it's blindingly obvious to everybody we can start saying, "Hey you can still get around if you have a smaller, more efficient car, if we build better public transport."

A theme at the conference was that the Greens weren't communicating well?

Norman: We've had a whole bunch of people coming to Parliament talking about their areas of concern ... it meant that we struggled to synthesise our message. We're trying to do that better. So some of the terminology we're moving towards are around "future-proofing NZ" and the idea of a sustainable economy.

What about Nandor's concerns about the party being painted into a left corner or being Labour's clip-on?

Norman: There's been an ongoing discussion in the party about the relationship between the principles, the relationship between social justice and environmental sustainability which tied into the discussion about how left-wing we are. There was always a plan after the AGM to carry on that discussion, and we will do that.

There's a conservationist strand, a left-wing strand, there's also a libertarian strand. We're trying to find a way to unify Green identity.

I've never thought we were a clip-on to Labour. Remember 2002? We were at war with Labour. They were trying to kill us.

Is the door slightly more open to National now?

Fitzsimons: We've worked with National on a few issues ... but at the moment their policy platform is pretty much wholly anti-Green. They are going to have to come up with a lot of better ideas before there would be any opportunities.

Several of your co-leader competitors seemed to be pushing a closer alliance with the Maori Party than you, Russel?

Norman: I'm obviously open to it and we've had good relations with them, but it's got to be based on policy.

They voted for Wayne Mapp's bill about the probationary period in employment ... it's a bad bill. I think they are still finding their feet and that's fair enough.

RUSSEL NORMAN

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* Greens Party development co-ordinator.

* BA (Hons), PhD (politics).

* Born in Australia, but has lived in NZ for the past nine years; has held various roles within the Green Party, including Auckland co-convener and election campaign manager.