Greens head for Opposition with 14 MPs, but tout electorate wins

Sunday, 15 October 2023

Supporters cheers at the Green Party election night gathering at the Lula Inn on Auckland's Viaduct.

The Green Party will have around 14 MPs in the new Parliament, joining Labour, Te Pāti Māori and possibly New Zealand First in Opposition.

But losing ministerial power was balanced by historic electorate wins for the party, with Chlöe Swarbrick retaining Auckland Central and Tamatha Paul and Julie Anne Genter set to win Wellington Central and Rongotai respectively.

“We have changed history today,” Paul told supporters last night, celebrating what she described as the party’s biggest-ever grassroots campaign.

Marama Davidson and James Shaw address supporters in Auckland on election night.

Co-leader James Shaw acknowledged Christopher Luxon as the likely next prime minister, saying that “our friends in the Labour Party” had a hard night.

'It is incumbent upon us as parliamentarians, as political leaders, as human beings to find a way to get past the rhetoric of the campaign, for the wounds to heal and to come together in the national interest, for the sake of all New Zealanders and for the world beyond our shores,“ he said.

“The needs of our planet and our people are too important. They're too urgent for the petty partisan bickering of the campaign to carry over into that.'

Several hundred Greens supporters squeezed into the Lula Inn in central Auckland last night, enjoying vegan and vegetarian pizza on their party - but buying their own drinks.

It’s clear everyone was anxious for a win; any win. When TV results showed Tamatha Paul and Chlöe Swarbrick leading in their Wellington and Auckland Central electorates, cheers went up.

Though perhaps Newshub presenter Mike McRoberts got the biggest cheer of all as he went live from the venue and popped up on screen, talking to MP Golriz Ghahraman.

Fellow co-leader Marama Davidson was the one to give the celebratory speech to the gathered crowd, who cheered non-stop throughout her speech.

Chlöe Swarbrick addresses supporters at the Green Party’s election-night party in Auckland.

“We will need to be stronger, we will need to be tougher, we will need to be more than we ever have been before. We don't have a choice, Aotearoa needs us,” she said.

A random frog mascot joins the Green party fun.

Swarbrick, meanwhile, said her increased margin “indicates an increased fan base for change in Auckland Central, for the Auckland Central that all of us deserve”.

Everyone dressed in green for their party.

“Look around you. The power in this room is phenomenal. In 2020 we said no electorate belongs to any political party. We take absolutely nothing for granted and we work every single day to earn the privilege and trust of our community. That’s what grassroots community and change looks like.'

Davidson and Shaw spent the campaign telling voters that to get action on climate change, the Green Party had to return to government, and to finally join Cabinet too - an ultimately unsuccessful plea, although they still managed to improve on their 2020 result by several percentage points.

Over the last 10 years, the Greens have markedly improved their policy success rate, said Green Party and policy researcher from the University of Canterbury Geoff Ford.

After going into coalition with Labour in 2017, they won key ministerial portfolios and got the Zero Carbon Act across the line, and established the Climate Change Commission, he noted.

Even from 2020, where the Greens were more constrained, they succeeded with phasing out coal boilers from schools and hospitals.

Ford said he thought the public understood how parties were limited when they worked together under MMP.

“With the last government, it was a real achievement to have Green ministers outside of Cabinet in that context, and to be continuing to make achievements in areas that are really kind of important to Green policy thinking.”

He said the 2023 election campaign saw a new effort by the Greens to succeed at the electoral level. That had mixed results, with Ricardo Menendez March splitting the left vote in Mt Albert and opening the door for a win by National’s Melissa Lee.

Ford said regardless of the outcome, the party would have plenty to say during the next term.

“Whether the Greens are in government or they're in opposition, there will be things for those new MPs to say and ways for them to contribute to the debate in New Zealand.”

That sentiment was echoed by a defiant Swarbrick.

'We are obsessed, relentlessly, with trying to improve people's lives and outcomes for the environment.“

Added Paul: “No matter what government we get, we will be a pain in their arse.”