Someone popular with the Green membership, who can walk the social activism walk as much as the environmental walk, who can keep the Greens strong regardless of how Labour is doing. Derek Cheng looks at the contenders to replace James Shaw as Green Party co-leader.
Chlӧe Swarbrick
She ticks all the boxes. Chlӧe Swarbrick has experience, Green values to the core, public recognition - she regularly features in the preferred PM stakes in political polls - and has been an effective operator in Parliament since she became an MP in 2017.
Swarbrick has mirrored Shaw’s strategy of cross-party appeal in her efforts, in her first term, to build consensus for drug law reform. Though this was unsuccessful, she chalked up a win by making the Greens’ support for a bill tackling the synthetic drugs crisis conditional on moving the law closer to decriminalisation.
She is also different from Shaw in that she is more focused on grassroots, ground-up campaigning for system-wide change, rather than working within the system to get change.
She wouldn’t necessarily need to moderate her politics as co-leader, nor would she want to, given it’s earned her respect from all sides of the House; National’s Judith Collins, for example, singled out Swarbrick for believing what she says and standing firm on issues important to her, among them the climate crisis, student poverty, renters’ and LGBTQ rights, mental health and the state of housing in New Zealand.
Swarbrick’s also been a stand-out for the party by winning the seat of Auckland Central despite the big red wave sweeping the country in 2020, and then keeping it last year despite voter resentment towards an incumbent government the Greens were a part of.
But Swarbrick’s appeal is more than political. She has shared some of her personal life too, including being queer and her experiences with depression. And she’s garnered international headlines for her “okay, Boomer” quip in the House in 2020.
The only question seems to be whether she wants it, or even if she doesn’t, whether she’d put her hand up anyway in the belief - hers or the membership’s, or both - that she’s the best person for the job.
She’s previously said that it’s not a position she covets and has also questioned whether Parliament is the best place for her; she’s called it “a very oppressive environment... this Westminster adversarial model, where supposedly we yell back and forth at each other and we clash and that’s how we are supposed to get meaningful solutions”.
But being a sitting electorate MP means she is probably committed at least for this parliamentary term and if making a difference is what motivates her, being co-leader is surely a more influential position to do so.
If Swarbrick decides against it, it would be due in part to how much the role would take her away from her work in Auckland Central.
She is expected to announce whether she will put her name forward on Friday morning.
Julie Anne Genter
Like Swarbrick, Julie Anne Genter also bridges the perhaps overstated Green divide between social justice and environmental issues. And Genter has been interested in the job before, having run in the co-leadership contest in 2018, losing to Marama Davidson.
In that contest, she touted herself as the person to broaden the Greens’ appeal, which might be a good thing (if it meant having more influence in Parliament) or a bad thing (if it meant compromising to have broader appeal, not that broader appeal necessarily requires compromise).
She has something over Swarbrick with her ministerial experience and is a more natural successor to Shaw with her focus on climate change, economics and transport; she is evangelical on the latter, having biked to hospital to give birth.
This could be her selling point: “Like where the party is going? I’m the best candidate to continue that path.”
Being based in Wellington, like Shaw, is also complementary to Auckland-based Davidson, and another point of difference between her and Swarbrick.
Genter also shone at the election in winning the electorate seat of Rongotai, showing her appeal to the urban liberal base who make up the bulk of Green voters.
That’s not the same thing as Green Party members, though and she is more likely than Swarbrick to face criticism from the small faction of members who didn’t back Shaw as co-leader last year, forcing him to reapply for his job.
The membership may also be uncomfortable with a co-leader who has a strong American accent.
It’s also possible she may not want the job, instead wanting to focus on keeping Rongotai.
Teanau Tuiono
Experience, cross-party respect and activism roots are the main reasons Green members would back Teanau Tuiono.
He’s not that experienced, having had one term in Parliament, but in a caucus where only four potential contenders have been there before, it’s something. (The fourth, Ricardo Menéndez March, has ruled himself out.)
That he was appointed an Assistant Speaker, the first Green MP in such a role, shows he has the respect of the House, though it’s a role he’d probably have to give up if he were co-leader.
He is the first Green Pasifika MP, is based in the regions (Palmerston North) where the Green vote is ripe for growth (or, rather, where Greens support is lacking compared to urban centres) and, like Davidson, has a long history of activism, dating back to the anti-Springbok Tour protests in 1981.
He credits an Auckland University environmental paper - taught by former party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons - for turning him into an environmental activist.
Whether that would count for or against would depend on whether the membership wanted a co-leader in Davidson’s mould or in Shaw’s.
As he seriously considered contesting the co-leadership in 2022 when Shaw had to reapply for the job, it would not come as a shock if he put his name forward.
Steve Abel
A long-time activist, Steve Abel is well-known in Green circles, having been a member for 25-odd years.
He’s taken part in multiple campaigns, including stopping the Marsden B coal-fired power station, halting offshore oil and gas drilling, and highlighting the impact of nitrate contamination on drinking water. He was also part of a 245-day occupation to protest the felling of native frees in Avondale.
A musician and Greenpeace campaigner, Abel’s chances would be slim but there are other potential benefits from putting his name forward: the face-to-face time with the party membership around the country during a contest.
Making an impression would count for him if, in future, he wanted to put his hand up again.
Tamatha Paul
If Swarbrick is a trailblazer, then Tamatha Paul is riding the coat-tails as a young, popular, urban woman who won an electorate seat (Wellington Central) at the election. Again, like Abel, her chances would be slim, but a run might enhance future chances.
Efeso Collins
Has some name recognition from running - and losing - in the Auckland mayoralty race in 2022.
But his long history with the Labour Party - he put his hand up to be a Labour candidate in 2014, and was endorsed by Labour (and the Greens) for his mayoralty bid in Auckland - might not find favour among the Green Party membership.
James Cockle
Put his name forward in the co-leadership contest in 2021, though Shaw trounced him in the vote with 116 out of 120 votes.
Derek Cheng is a senior journalist who started at the Herald in 2004. He has worked several stints in the press gallery and is a former deputy political editor.
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