Green Party co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson speak to the media and welcome their new caucus to Parliament
Video / Mark Mitchell
A likely record Green Party caucus is ramping up for an energetic term in Opposition, with the leaders indicating “community-led resistance” - particularly around climate change and Te Tiriti o Waitangi issues - could be on the cards, although both of their futures are still uncertain.
Shaw and Davidson were joined by 13 other Green Party members at Parliament today. They currently have 14 MPs based on preliminary results - a record equal with 2011 and 2014 - but are likely to add another after the special votes have been counted.
Speaking in front of Parliament today, neither Shaw or Davidson were able to confirm if they would stick out the full term as co-leaders.
“Still decisions to be made,” said Davidson, who entered Parliament in 2015 and became female co-leader in 2018.
Shaw, who has long hinted at leading the party “safely out the other side” of government, said the timeline for that now depended on the definition of “safe”.
“We’ve got a big new caucus here. And the primary focus right now is to ensure that everyone gets their feet under the table, and we’re off to a really good start.”
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and James Shaw with their caucus. Photo / Mark Mitchell
He did note that co-leaders were elected every year, with the party’s next AGM in the middle of next year.
Asked about their strategy for being in Opposition after six years in Government arrangements, Shaw said they had previously spent 20 years in that position.
“It’s not unfamiliar to us,” he said, but added they would take some time to work out the practicalities of their approach in Parliament and themes.
That work would mostly continue what they had campaigned on before the election, along with saving what they had worked on the past six years, some of which would be affected by the final shape of the Government.
Davidson said there had been no formal approach from National, not that they expected any. National leader Christopher Luxon had been very clear he preferred to work with New Zealand First and the Act Party.
Davidson offered “thoughts and prayers” over being in Cabinet with NZ First leader Winston Peters, who they were in Government with from 2017 to 2020.
On finding some common areas in which they could co-operate with a National Government, Shaw said they had done so in 2008 to 2011 with a memorandum of understanding, but that took about six months until after that Government had formed.
“If there’s anything of that kind of arrangement, that will be for the future, they’ve obviously got to stitch together what is going to be a very awkward coalition.”
Shaw said their caucus was “tremendously diverse” in terms of its gender and sexual orientation, ethnicity, professional background, and geographical spread.
He noted Lan Pham was the country’s first MP with Vietnamese heritage, that built on a “strong tradition that we’ve had of firsts”, from New Zealand’s first deaf MP (Mojo Mathers) to the first former refugee (Golriz Ghahraman).
Greens co-leaders Marama Davidson and James Shaw (front), with their caucus (from left): Lan Pham, Efeso Collins, Hūhana Lyndon, Scott Willis, Chlöe Swarbrick, Darleen Tana, Julie Anne Genter, Ricardo Menendez March, Tamatha Paul, Kahurangi Carter, Teanau Tuiono, Golriz Ghahraman and Steve Abel, on Parliament Steps, Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The party has also seen three, potentially four, more wāhine Māori in Darleen Tana, Hūhana Lyndon and Tamatha Paul, with Kahurangi Carter likely to come in as well after special votes have been counted.
New MPs also include Efeso Collins, Scott Willis and Steve Abel. Continuing MPs are Chlöe Swarbrick - who won Auckland Central - Julie Anne Genter - who won Rongotai - Ricardo Menendez March, Golriz Ghahraman and Teanau Tuiono.
Asked about the climate change space, which Shaw had occupied the past six years, including getting historic legislation such as the Zero Carbon Act over the line, he said while National committed to delivering on the 2030 and 2050 targets, their policies - combined with Act’s and NZ First’s - would make them “impossible to meet”.
Davidson likened their approach, including opening up offshore oil and gas exploration again, to “political violence”.
“It’s actually threatening the future in the livelihood of our mokopuna and our planet. It is political violence that you are doing when you want to expose our future generations and our people now to more climate-impact weather,” she said.
“There is going to be community-led resistance and movement that the Greens will absolutely amplify.”
New Green Party MPs (front, from left): Scott Willis, Darleen Tana, Tamatha Paul, Lan Pham, Efeso Collins and Hūhana Lyndon with Steve Abel (rear, third from right). Photo / Mark Mitchell
She also spoke to policies from National and Act in the Māori space, including Act’s bottom line to have a referendum on redefining the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. Labour’s Willie Jackson has spoken about working with the Greens and Te Pāti Māori to fight back.
“It is really important we work with Te Pāti Māori and Labour to uphold that Te Tiriti justice aspiration, because it’s not just Māori, our Tauiwi [non-Māori] allies too,” Davidson said.
“We will be resisting the rubbish that was being spouted by the anti co-governance tour, the anti-Tiriti tour.
“These sorts of divisive and mana-trampling conversations on Te Tiriti are absolutely about causing social unrest. We’ve seen that here and around the world. We don’t want that to happen and the only way that cannot happen is by stopping using Māori as political footballs.”
New MP Efeso Collins, a former Auckland councillor, said he wanted to give South Auckland hope.
“I think a whole lot of South Auckland just chose not to vote, because they’re feeling a sense of hopelessness,” Collins said.
“The key is to restore that hope to get our young people reengaged and reconnected. And that’s going to make a huge difference for them.
“Whilst I know that there’s a lot of disappointment in the community with the result, we’re gonna have extremely right-wing government, what we can do is get in and stand shoulder to shoulder with our communities. So they know that hope is coming.”
