Chlöe Swarbrick on Election Night 2023 after holding Auckland Central. Photo / Michael Craig.
Chlöe Swarbrick does not expect that the Greens and the coalition Government will find much to agree on during this Parliamentary term.
Swarbrick was named as the Green Party’s new co-leader after James Shaw announced his intention in January to retire from Parliament.
She faced only one other contender for the role but was voted in unanimously by Green Party members.
Swarbrick has seen her popularity rise meteorically after first coming to the public’s attention running for the Auckland mayoralty in 2016. After being elected to Parliament in 2017, she went on to win the Auckland Central electorate in 2020 and 2023.
Speaking to The Front Page, the Herald’s daily news podcast, Swarbrick admitted that she had never striven for the role, but a number of people had asked her to step into the co-leader role. However, she thinks achieving change is bigger than just her and whoever holds these roles.
“It’s not just one person who changes the world, particularly if you look at where things have changed for the better in many democracies, not only here, but around the rest of the world,” Swarbrick said.
“I see my role as helping to remind people that, you know, we get the politics that we think that we deserve, and right now that bar is too damn low. We’ve been involved in kind of this back and forth of legacy politics and watched it fail to serve both people and the planet, and we get to decide a new way to move forward.
“I just want New Zealanders out there fundamentally to realise the power they have to see their values and the evidence base necessary to achieve the outcomes they deserve reflected in our politics.”
On the coalition Government, Swarbrick said that they are pursuing a policy agenda that their own advice says will make the country a worse place.
“I see a deep inconsistency with that commitment to data and evidence and then the 200-odd plus commitments in those coalition agreements, which [are] more like a grab bag of random Facebook comment sections.
She said voters she spoke to were expecting a focus on the cost-of-living crisis, not culture wars targeting the Treaty of Waitangi.
Swarbrick said their stated agenda is “completely antithesis to the values, not only of the Greens, but also to what I would believe are the values of many New Zealanders”, but that their door remains open to progress critical policy on areas such as climate change and mental health.
“I co-founded the cross-party group on mental health and addiction well-being with Louisa Wall and Matt Doocey, who is our Minister of Mental Health, so I see that there’s an opportunity there with regards to eating disorders, neurodivergence, ADHD support and otherwise.
“But it’s not a vision I think many of us can buy into, so we absolutely will hold them to account where they are seeking to be reactionary, regressive, and ultimately take us back to the future.”
Listen to the full episode to hear more from Chloe Swarbrick on her new role and what’s next for the Greens.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. This episode was presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined Newstalk ZB in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Where the Prime Minister will be on national day is unclear.