John Armstrong: Nearest thing to surrogate Rod Donald

Russel who? It matters little that the new male co-leader of the Greens is a relative unknown who has kept a low profile and who, as a non-MP, will have his work cut out to raise it.

Russel Norman is the right man for the job.

The 39-year-old is the closest the Greens will come to finding a surrogate Rod Donald even if they insist they were not looking for one.

Like Donald, Norman has a long pedigree as a political activist both in New Zealand, where he has lived for the last 10 years, and Australia, where he was born.

Like Donald, his idealism is tempered by realism and pragmatism - the key ingredients Donald injected into the party and which made him the perfect foil to Jeanette Fitzsimons.

Unlike Donald, Norman is far more identifiably left-wing, his politics less grounded in environmentalism.

The Greens' campaign manager during last year's election, his practical experience from working in various backroom roles over the years has an intellectual underpinning in the form of a PhD thesis on the politics of Jim Anderton's Alliance.

A low charisma quotient is compensated by him communicating the Green message clearly and succinctly. He still has to learn how to project that message so people sit up and take note.

When the questions get tricky, he has that politician's patter which sounds good but says nothing. Being Australian, he can be blunt, however. The Greens are polite to a fault. Norman should toughen them up.

His biggest advantage in Saturday's co-leader election at the Greens conference was that he did not carry any political baggage - unlike Nandor Tanczos.

Norman sold himself as the fresh face who could lead the break-out of the Greens from their metropolitan inner-city sanctuaries into the more vote-rich suburbs and provincial cities. It is a tall order.

Success or failure will be easy to measure.

However, it is a strategy, whereas Tanczos had the stumbling block of party members not being able to see past his advocacy of cannabis law reform which they feared would inevitably obstruct the party's wider message from reaching its audience.

His candidacy was also seen by some as divisive as it challenged the status quo both in terms of the Greens' "brand" and their positioning on Labour's left.

However, the latter restricts their bargaining power. Tanczos's brutal but accurate assessment of the party's weaknesses is already having an impact with Fitzsimons opening the door very slightly to working with National, rather than the Greens dealing solely with Labour.

Tanczos deserves some applause for that, but Norman's win was never really in doubt.

The Fitzsimons-Norman pairing seems neatly balanced, with Norman as the apprentice and no one in doubt as to who has seniority. Having no parliamentary responsibilities, Norman can concentrate on rejuvenating the party organisation which Fitzsimons believes is relying too much on the parliamentary wing to carry the beacon.