Tanczos aims to widen his appeal

Nandor Tanczos

Nandor Tanczos, who is taking up the seat left vacant by the death of Greens co-leader Rod Donald, says he aims to show he is more than a single-issue politician focused on cannabis law reform.

Greens leader Jeanette Fitzsimons expressed her concern about how he was sometimes viewed.

"He's got a lot to contribute and I think it's a shame he's been typecast, caricatured and stereotyped in the way he has."

Mr Tanczos said the decision had been difficult as he'd had a fantastic time over the past four weeks spending time with his partner and young daughter and had to weigh that up "with returning to the toxic hellhole in Parliament".

"But I guess I came to the decision I did because we've got an enormous amount of work to do now in the Green Party and even more so, of course, with Rod's demise and I'm ready to play my part."

He said it was disappointing that "some commentators have made the mistake of thinking that I'm a single-issue MP, and some members of the public too.

"I think it's unfair because you just have to simply look at what I've been doing over the past six years and read my speeches and look at the articles I've had published and the press releases I put out, to see that that's not true."

Ms Fitzsimons said he was "a wise head, Nandor, a very principled person".

"He's worked on so many issues he's never had a profile for. So I'm glad he's back and able to carry on that good work."

The MPs said it came as no surprise to them to hear Mr Donald's partner, Nicola Shirlaw, say at his funeral he had recently considered abandoning politics.

The despair she referred to him feeling at times was characteristic of political life, Ms Fitzsimons said.

"I think all of us in the heat of that environment and the workload and everything else have our down times as well as our up times.

"I knew that he had some moments of doubt, but also he was a person that tried not to let that show, and I suppose I am too, really."

The pair, together with fellow MPs Sue Bradford and Sue Kedgley, said the co-leadership position left vacant by Mr Donald should be left that way for a while.

The decision must be made at a party annual meeting and unless a special one is called, the matter will be resolved at the next one in June.

Ms Bradford and Ms Kedgley are respectively the next highest-ranked MPs after Ms Fitzsimons, but the party's constitution requires a male co-leader.

This leaves Mr Tanczos and Keith Locke as the parliamentary contenders - although the constitution does not require a co-leader to be an MP.

Ms Fitzsimons said of the co-leadership position: "I think it's a decision the party needs to take some time on because it's a very long-term decision about the sort of party we become over future years."

"While it wouldn't bother me at all to have two female co-leaders, I think there is some real value in keeping the gender balance model.

'It's about the fact that men and women do bring slightly different things to the role. It's about some balance, I don't know, call it yin and yang."