Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson says the party is serious about its four two-tick campaigns this year and expects to have more electorate MPs in the next Parliament, Marc Daalder reports
The Green Party will kick off its campaign this weekend in Auckland, after a two-day AGM and the launch of the party manifesto.
Speaking to Newsroom ahead of the conference, co-leader Marama Davidson says she didn't expect this year to be marred by the party in-fighting seen in 2022. Then, co-leader James Shaw was unseated when delegates voted to reopen nominations for his role, though no one else ended up challenging him in the subsequent contest.
"I said to [James] last night that he may even get the strongest vote he has had, because of the work that he did following the reopen nominations, where he reconnected with the party in a way that he maybe hadn't for a while," Davidson says.
Then again, she made similarly confident comments to Newsroom just 48 hours before last year's AGM.
"It was definitely a shock for all of us," she now concedes. "But again, the party had to go through a bit of a process for that and we're now in an election year. I'm feeling really confident that the party is focused on the election and the campaign."
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Davidson continues to disagree with the minority within the party who view the Greens' arrangements with Labour over the past two terms as compromising. Instead, she says, they're a foundation for a new campaign strategy.
"This will be my first time campaigning as a co-leader who is also a minister. We haven't had that opportunity before, that record of achievements while in a government arrangement, so it's a new experience," she says.
"Our strategy is about people seeing that we can form a government and get some stuff done, but that we are the party who want to get even more done. We've got the experience, but we've also got the longstanding policy and research behind us as well."
While opposition parties will use the Green Party's more radical policies, like their tax and universal income plan, to bludgeon Labour, Davidson doesn't see it as her job to cover for Chris Hipkins. She's happy to frame the election as a contest between the minor parties on the wings – either you get a Labour government with Green influence or a National government with Act influence.
"A National-Act coalition will be a coalition led by Act's influence. That is a bleak proposition for climate action, for ending poverty and inequality and for protecting our biodiversity and nature," she says.
"We will continue to outline that the choice really is between the Greens highly influencing the next government or the Act Party highly influencing the next government."
That's a bit different from 2020, when the outcome of the election was obvious and the Greens could take aim at Labour without risking their own chances at power.
The other new aspect this year is the serious ground game the party is deploying in a number of electorates, aimed not just at the party vote but at winning seats as well.
Chlöe Swarbrick is working hard to retain Auckland Central and is widely considered the favourite for that job. But the party is also running a two-tick campaign with Julie Anne Genter in Rongotai, with city councillor Tamatha Paul in Wellington Central and Ricardo Menéndez March in Mt Albert.
All three seats are Labour-held, but the incumbents aren't running in them.
Wellington Central, where the Greens have had a solid showing in the party vote for years, seems genuinely up for grabs with Grant Robertson stepping aside and National's deputy leader Nicola Willis targeting Ōhāriu.
In Rongotai, Paul Eagle is retiring after his failed mayoral bid and two-term city councillor Fleur Fitzsimons is picking up Labour's flag. Mt Albert, meanwhile, has been handed from Jacinda Ardern to Helen White, who lost the Auckland Central race to Swarbrick last election.
The Greens have never held two electorate seats at once and for most of their existence have been a list-only party. How serious is this two-tick bid?
"I expect some really good results in the other seats," Davidson says. "I'm gunning. I'm really thrilled to see how well Tamatha's ground machine is doing every weekend, every week. Julie Anne's been quite overwhelmed by the support that she has been getting in Rongotai as well. And I was door-knocking for Ricardo in Mt Albert a couple of weekends ago and the feedback has been pretty stunning."
Davidson says she would be "disappointed" if they didn't pick up another seat, "because I expect them to do really well in those electorates and they're working so hard".
The party's analysis of the Auckland Central race in 2020 found that a two-tick campaign didn't harm the party vote, it actually bolstered it.
"There's a feeling across the membership that it's about time for us to really go hard for some of those electorates. So I'm feeling pretty excited, particularly for our Wellington two-tick campaigns and I think we've got a real good chance. It's just an evolution of the party and growing up and realising that we've got a role to play in going for electorates as well."
The other noticeable difference this year on that front is Davidson's own decision not to run a two-tick campaign in Tāmaki Makaurau. She says that she and Shaw (who has also decided to go list-only this year to make room for Paul's run in Wellington) wanted to be able to take a national focus for the election rather than be tied down in their electorates.
"This election is the last chance that we will have a government that will actually avoid the worst effects of climate change," she says.
"James and I being able to really focus as co-leaders, really focus on our responsibility and media as co-leaders and focus our energies and efforts at that leadership level is a key part of our election strategy."
