Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand
The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, commonly known as Green or the Greens, is a green political party in New Zealand. Like many green parties around the world, it has four pillars. The party's ideology combines environmentalism with social democratic economic policies, including well-funded and locally controlled public services within the confines of a steady-state economy. Internationally, it is affiliated with the Global Greens.
The Green Party traces its origins to the Values Party, founded in 1972 as the world's first national-level environmentalist party. The current Green Party was formed in 1990. From 1991 to 1997, the party participated in the Alliance, a grouping of five left-wing parties. It gained representation in Parliament at the 1996 election.
Historically, the Green Party had two co-leaders, one male and one female. In May 2022, Green Party members voted to change the co-leadership model to one requiring that a leader be female and that a leader be Māori. Marama Davidson has been the female co-leader since 2018. Chlöe Swarbrick became co-leader in March 2024, succeeding James Shaw, who had been elected as male co-leader in 2015.
It is the third largest party in the House of Representatives, with 15 MPs. In 2020, the party agreed to cooperate with the Sixth Labour Government and received two ministerial portfolios in return. The Green Party contests many local government elections throughout New Zealand. Green Party representative Celia Wade-Brown served as Mayor of Wellington from 2010 to 2016, and in 2019, Aaron Hawkins was elected as the Mayor of Dunedin. In Auckland, the Green Party campaigns with the Labour Party, under the City Vision political banner.
Principles and policies
The Green Party was founded to counter what it sees as threats to the natural environment. Environmental issues remain its main focus. In recent times, it has expressed concerns about mining of national parks, fresh water, peak oil and the release of genetically engineered organisms. The party strongly supports efforts to address climate change based on scientific evidence, by transitioning away from the burning of fossil fuels to renewable energy production, as well as making carbon pricing more transparent and bringing the agricultural sector into the Emissions Trading Scheme.The Green Party has spoken out in support of human rights and against military operations conducted by the United States and other countries in Afghanistan and Iraq. The party has also expressed sympathy for the Palestinians and criticised the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories.
The party is also known for its advocacy on numerous social issues, such as the legalisation of marriage equality, the right to seek asylum and increasing the refugee quota, and gender equality.
The party accepts Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the founding document of New Zealand and recognises Māori as tangata whenua.
In its economic policies, the Green Party stresses factors such as sustainability, taxing the indirect costs of pollution, and fair trade. It also states that measuring economic success should concentrate on measuring well-being rather than analysing economic indicators. The party wants the eventual introduction of a universal basic income.
The party has previously campaigned on legalising cannabis and "remov penalties for any person with a terminal illness, chronic or debilitating condition to cultivate, possess or use cannabis and/or cannabis products for therapeutic purposes, with the support of a registered medical practitioner". In the 2017–2020 term of the Sixth Labour Government, medicinal cannabis was legalised, but legalisation of recreational cannabis use was rejected in a 2020 referendum.
The Greens rely heavily on the well-educated, urban demographic for their voter base. Green voters have various priorities but are likely to have a high regard for the environment and environmental issues. However, research indicates very few people who vote Green do so purely for environmental concerns.
History
Foundations
The Green Party traces its origins to the Values Party, the world's first national-level environmentalist party. The Values Party originated in 1972 at Victoria University of Wellington. While it gained a measure of public support in several elections, the then first-past-the-post electoral system meant that the party did not win any seats in the House of Representatives. Some of the founding members of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, notably Jeanette Fitzsimons, Rod Donald and Mike Ward, had been active members of the Values Party at the outset of the Green movement in the 1970s.At the 1989 local-body elections, multiple candidates stood for local government positions under the "Green" label. It saw the election of New Zealand's first Green city councillor, Stephen Rainbow, in Wellington. He was joined the next year by councillor Merrin Downing, who left the Citizens' Association to join the Greens.
In May 1990, remnants of the Values Party merged with a number of other environmentalist organisations to form the modern Green Party. This sparked a resurgence of support, with the new group winning 6.85% of the vote in the 1990 election.
The Alliance years
The following year, the Greens became co-founding members of the Alliance, a five-party grouping that also consisted of the Democrats, Liberals, Mana Motuhake and NewLabour Party. Immediately prior to this there had been limited co-operation between the parties running joint candidates in several local-body by-elections in Auckland. One candidate, Ruth Norman, was from the Greens and was elected to the Auckland Regional Council. At the Alliance's inaugural party conference in November 1992 party members elected Jeanette Fitzsimons from the Greens as a co-deputy leader of the Alliance.The Greens contested the 1993 and 1996 elections as part of the Alliance. Membership of the Alliance was a controversial decision with a sizeable minority in the party remaining opposed to it. Consequently the party was plagued in the following few years by persistent calls for departure from the Alliance. Over time the issue became a more divisive issue internally until eventually a splinter party was set up by members who were unhappy at the direction of the Alliance, which they believed was too left-wing and too focused on social justice type issues, detracting focus from environmental issues.
Until the 1995 annual conference in Taupō, the Greens had no elected leaders. At that conference, Jeanette Fitzsimons was elected unopposed as female co-leader, and Rod Donald defeated Joel Cayford and Mike Smith in a three-way contest to become male co-leader.
After New Zealand adopted the mixed-member proportional electoral system in 1996, the Alliance gained entry to Parliament, bringing three Green list MPs with them: Jeanette Fitzsimons, Rod Donald and Phillida Bunkle.
In 1997, feeling that membership of the Alliance had subsumed their identity, the Greens took the decision to stand candidates independently of the Alliance at the next election. While most of the Green party members left the Alliance, some decided, instead, to leave the Green Party and stay in the Alliance. Conversely, some of the Alliance party members, who joined the Alliance via other parties, decided to leave the Alliance and join the Green Party, notably Sue Bradford and Keith Locke, who both joined the Alliance via NewLabour.
Green Party in Parliament
1999 election
In the 1999 election, the Greens gained 5.16% of the party vote and seven seats in Parliament. Fitzsimons also won the electorate seat of Coromandel; it is believed that this is the first time a Green candidate won a first-past-the-post parliamentary election. During the ten days it took to count special votes and confirm Fitzsimons' election, Labour concluded a coalition agreement with the Alliance which excluded the Greens. However, the party supported the government on confidence and supply in return for some input into the budget and legislation. This led to the Greens gaining a $15 million energy efficiency and environmental package in the new government's first budget. Over the term, the Greens developed a good working relationship with the government and also had some input into policy, notably Sue Bradford's amendments to the Employment Relations Act 2000.2002 election
In the 2002 election, the Greens polled 7.00%, increasing their strength in Parliament to nine seats, although they lost the Coromandel electorate. The electoral campaign featured strong tensions between the Greens and Labour. The Greens sharply criticised Labour for its plans to allow a moratorium on genetic engineering to expire, and believing that Labour would require their support to form a government, intended to make the extension of this moratorium a non-negotiable part of any deal. After the election, however, Labour and their coalition partner, the Jim Anderton-led Progressive Coalition, instead opted to rely on support from United Future, at that time a party with conservative Christian overtones.Although the Greens no longer had any input into the budget, they maintained a close working relationship with the government, and the Greens remained involved in the legislation process. Often the government needed to rely on Green votes in the House to pass progressive legislation not approved by United Future. The government won praise from political commentators for juggling the two diametrically-opposed parties.
While the moratorium on genetic modification has now expired, the Greens remain heavily involved in attempts to prevent any GM releases under the new regulatory framework, and genetic engineering remains a major topic for the party.
2005 election
In the 2005 election, the Greens won 5.30%, returning six of their MPs to Parliament. Despite expressing clear support for a Labour-led government during the campaign, they were excluded from the resulting coalition, due to a refusal by United Future and NZ First to work with the Greens in cabinet. They were, however, able to negotiate a cooperation agreement which saw limited input into the budget and broad consultation on policy. Both co-leaders were appointed as government spokespeople outside cabinet, with Fitzsimons responsible for Energy Efficiency, and Donald responsible for the Buy Kiwi Made campaign. However, Rod Donald died the day before Parliament was due to sit and the position of government spokesperson on Buy Kiwi Made was filled by Sue Bradford. Nándor Tánczos took up the vacant list position and the co-leader position remained vacant until a new co-leader, Russel Norman was elected at their 2006 annual general meeting. The other contenders for the position were Nándor Tánczos, David Clendon and former MP Mike Ward.Bradford also introduced, in 2005, the members' bill that would become the Crimes Amendment Act 2007. The bill sought to outlaw the legal defence of "reasonable force" for parents prosecuted for assault against children. It led to widespread debate and accusations that MPs supporting the bill were fostering a 'nanny state' approach. Despite this, the Bill became law after it passed its third reading on 16 May 2007 with an overwhelming majority of 113 votes for and 7 votes against.