Greens' agreement with Labour in spotlight at AGM and co-leadership vote

Green wins in its cooperation agreement with Labour will be up for discussions at the party's AGM this weekend. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Government action on lifting benefit rates, the feebate scheme and waste minimisation would not be reality without the Greens pushing Labour, co-leader Marama Davidson says.

Next on her list is unaffordable rents, and helping the under-18s who are homeless and can't get Government support.

Appraising the cooperation agreement between Labour and the Greens is on the agenda at the party's annual general meeting in Upper Hutt this weekend.

It's also on the agenda in the form of a challenge to co-leader James Shaw from Dunedin activist James Cockle, who thinks the Greens shouldn't be supporting Labour in Government.

Cockle wants the Greens to be the major party, "not just giving away polices that are akin to being Labour's little helper", he said in a YouTube video explaining why he was running.

Shaw is not expected to lose, nor is he expecting to lose. He has written a speech for the Sunday co-leader's address, and hasn't packed up his office or had a final supper with his staff.

Dunedin activist and Green Party co-leadership challenger James Cockle. Photo / Youtube screenshot

But it will be fascinating to see how the vote falls, especially if Shaw doesn't win a resounding majority, which would indicate the size of differences within the party.

The Greens won 7.9 per cent of the vote in last year's election, and in the latest Newshub Reid Research poll this week they were on 8.5 per cent.

Criticisms that the Greens haven't been loud enough or influential enough, if there was any truth to them, haven't seem to have translated to any loss in support.

And Shaw thinks there is still room to grow by welcoming disaffected Labour supporters who don't think the Government is doing enough in the housing, income inequality, climate change and biodiversity spaces.

Davidson, who is Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence and Associate Housing Minister, is adamant the Greens have secured policy wins that would otherwise not have happened.

Some of those - such as the feebate scheme and waste minimisation - are from the work of Julie Anne Genter and Eugenie Sage as ministers in the last parliamentary term, while she credits the Welfare Working Group recommendations for the benefit level increases in this year's Budget.

"The WWG was only because of our (2017) confidence and supply agreement," Davidson says.

Shaw, who is Climate Change Minister, is more charitable about the breadth of the Greens' influence, including in the climate change space.

"I don't think that they [those policies] would be as strong as they are without us."

Davidson adds the conversion therapy ban to the list.

"Labour had originally wanted a whole year before they brought the bill to the House. [Green MP] Elizabeth Kerekere launched a petition that got nearly 160,000 signatures and we saw them chop out six months," she says.

Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and James Shaw will be at the party's AGM this weekend. Photo / Mark Mitchell

"We're just getting on with the mahi. We're the only ones saying any bloody thing about rent.

"Things are so dire at the moment that I think a rental freeze, even if it's a temporary one while we wait for thousands of more public and affordable houses to be built, has got to be a serious consideration."

The party will also have a discussion on the co-leadership model this weekend, though Davidson says there are no remits.

"It won't be a lone Marama leader at all. It will be Marama and James," she adds, noting that both contenders for the other co-leadership position have the same first name.

Shaw says his challenger is speaking for the 15 per cent of party delegates who voted against the Labour-Greens cooperation agreement.

"He doesn't think that being in Government is worth the compromises. I fundamentally disagree. I think it's better to be actually getting those policy gains and making a difference to people's lives than it is to be pure Opposition.

"It's not just my opinion. It's the opinion of 85 per cent of the delegates at the vote. I would like to have more influence, more ministers, but I think we're doing pretty well, given the hand we were dealt at the election."

Davidson will use her speech today to repeat accusations of racism at the National Party, which has accused the Government of a separatist agenda and were in the headlines this week for pushing a referendum on having the country's name as "Aotearoa".

Shaw is giving the main address on Sunday - if he wins the co-leadership vote on Saturday evening.