Te Awa Issue 59

And we’re just getting started

#59 Spring 2018

te awa

te awa

Cover image Green Party Co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson at the party’s annual general meeting in August Photo by Rick Swaan

#59 Spring 2018 Te Awa | The River

The Green Party Charter

Te Marautanga Kakariki

greenparty@greens.org.nz Phone 04 801 5102 Level 2, 17 Garrett Street, Te Aro, Wellington PO Box 11-652, Wellington

The charter is the founding document of The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Ko te kawenata te pukapuka whakaū o te Rōpu Kākāriki o Aotearoa, Niu Tireni.

The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand accepts Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the founding document of Aotearoa New Zealand; recognises Māori as Tangata Whenua in Aotearoa New Zealand; and commits to the following four Principles:

E whakaae ana te Rōpu Kākāriki ko te Tiriti o Waitangi te pepa whakaū (kawenata) o Aotearoa, Niu Tireni; e whakaae ana te Rōpu kākāriki ko te iwi Māori te tangata whenua o Aotearoa, o Niu Tireni, ā, ka mau pūmau te rōpu Kākāriki ki ngā mātāpono e whā e whai ake nei:

Editor Shenagh Gleeson 021 965 752 editor.magazine@greens.org.nz Copy editor Liz Gray Reviews Janine McVeagh Advertising ads.magazine@greens.org.nz Te Awa Board Elected members Ron Elder, Pam Henson, Philippa Stevenson Caucus rep Chlöe Swarbrick Executive John Ranta Policy Nick Marryatt Te Rōpu Pounamu Rochelle Surendran Authorised by Gwen Shaw, Level 2, 17 Garrett St, Wellington

To have Te Awa sent to you as a pdf rather than as a paper copy, or for queries about Te Awa distribution options.magazine@greens.org.nz

Information for Contributors Te Awa is published quarterly in Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer.

Before submitting material, please check with the Guidelines for Contributors, which you can obtain from the editor.

References do not appear in the print version of Te Awa, but are appended to the pdf of the magazine that is available online.

Opinions expressed in Te Awa are not statements of Green Party policy, but must not bring the Green Party into disrepute.

Remember please!

Copy deadline for the Summer 2018 issue is 15 October.

Te Awa is printed on FSC-Certified Paper

Ecological Wisdom The basis of ecological wisdom is that human beings are part of the natural world. This world is finite, therefore unlimited material growth is impossible. Ecological sustainability is paramount.

Social Responsibility Unlimited material growth is impossible. Therefore the key to social responsibility is the just distribution of social and natural resources, both locally and globally.

Appropriate Decision-making For the implementation of ecological wisdom and social responsibility, decisions will be made directly at the appropriate level by those affected.

Non-Violence Non-violent conflict resolution is the process by which ecological wisdom, social responsibility and appropriate decision making will be implemented.

This principle applies at all levels.

Tikanga Toi Potapotae Ko te putake o te tikanga toi potapotae ko te tangata he wahanga no te ao tuturu. Ko te ao nei he taparepare, waihoki, kihai e taea kia tupu haere mo ake tonu atu Me ukauka te tikanga toi potapotae koia ra te tino taumata.

Kawenga Papori Kihai nga rawa o te ao e tipu haere tonu. Waihoki, ko te mea nui ke ko te kawenga papori, e whiwhi ai tena ki ona tikanga ano ki era rawa, ki te wa kainga nei, ki tawahi ranei o te ao.

Whakarite Totika E oti tika ai nga tikanga toi potapotae, me nga kawenga papori, ma nga whakarite totika a nga hunga e pa pumau tonu ana ki era take, ara, ki nga hua hoki a era whakarite.

Aukati Whakarekereke Me aukati te whakarekereke, e kitea ai te huarahi tika, e eke ai nga tikanga toi potapotae, nga kawenga papori, tae noa atu ki nga whakarite totika, e tau ai te rangimarie. Ko tenei ahuatanga e pa ana ki nga tairanga katoa.

From the Te Awa Team Taking heart Shenagh Gleeson 2 Te Awa is back to paper envelopes or PDFs Philippa Stevenson and Ron Elder 2

Letter/FunMark A big GE/GMO win for Northland Zelka Linda Grammer 3 Wanted: Graphic designers FunMark 3

Our Networks Call to Action emerges from Women’s Hui Debs Martin and Kerry Tankard 4-5 Giving back via a role in local government Paul Bailey 6 APGF catch-up Metiria Turei 7

Green Party 2018 AGM The “beating green heart of government” celebrates Shenagh Gleeson 8–9

Our Networks Climate change puts plans for the future at risk Bethany Cavalcante 10 Young Greens running for the Mental Health Foundation Conor Bryant 11 Interesting sessions at Going West Writers Festival 11

From the Benches Pursuing our Green dreams in a tumultuous time Marama Davidson 12 You can’t divorce genuine action on climate change from social justice Chlöe Swarbrick 13 What’s a musterer? Gareth Hughes 14

Flax Roots Action Hawke’s Bay 14

From the Party Zooming democratic success Philippa Stevenson 15

Greens Have Their Say BRR and the fiscal future of the Green Party Paul Kelland and Shanti Ahluwalia 16 Harakeke, raranga and strategic direction Ben Ogilvy 17

Our People Obituaries – Tony Gray and Christina Gibb 18

Green World August 2018 Lois Griffiths 19

Looking Back 10 years of wasted opportunity Dave Kennedy 20

Reviews Constant Radical: The Life and Times of Sue Bradford Janine McVeagh 21

Contents

Not for Ourselves Alone: Belonging in an Age of Loneliness Janine McVeagh 21

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From the Te Awa Team 02

Taking heart Shenagh Gleeson

Te Awa is back to paper or PDFs Ron Elder and Pip Stevenson

There was much to lift the spirits in the middle of winter.

In a report released in July, the Parliamentary

Just over 15,000 New Zealanders took the opportunity to make a submission on the Zero Carbon Bill and the majority of them are firmly behind the Government’s plans for action on climate change.

Our co-leaders, James Shaw and Marama Davidson, played a huge part in helping spur people into action on the bill, through old-fashioned community meetings and through social media. We await the bill that will put a target in place to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050, and will set up the steps and the institutions necessary to get there, such as an independent Climate Change Commission.

We also wait to see whether the bill will get the bi-partisan Parliamentary support that New Zealanders want. A survey by IAG found 79 per cent of respondents believe New Zealand’s approach to addressing climate change should be bi-partisan.

The survey found that just 33 per cent were happy with government action on climate change so far and 79 per cent said we need to start acting now. I was very heartened to see that 78 per cent said we should act even if other countries don’t. The old argument that we don’t need to do anything because we are too small to make a difference seems well and truly discredited.

Another welcome shift was signalled by Statistics New Zealand starting work on broadening the criteria beyond GDP for measuring our country’s success. Aotearoa will become the first country in the world to produce a comprehensive set of indicators to measure things such as our natural environment, social wellbeing and human and social capital.

And last month came the fantastic, long-awaited decision to ban single use plastic bags and Jan Logie’s world-first leave provision for victims of domestic violence.

On not such a positive note, Te Awa has had to make some less-than-desirable changes. Funding constraints have reduced both the size of this issue and the use of colour. Nevertheless, members from across the party have produced some excellent articles on a range of topics and I hope you will find the magazine interesting and informative.

If you would like to see all the photos in this issue in colour, go to members.greens@org.nz or issuu.com/te-awa

Commissioner for the Environment makes it clear that oxo-degradable plastic is not suitable for the New Zealand environment, nor perhaps any environment.

The Te Awa Board carried out careful research before sending out our last issue in the more economical flow-wrap.

We were given to understand that it would degrade in the NZ environment. We were clearly misled.

Our only remaining option for posting Te Awa is to go back to the more-than-twice-as expensive paper envelopes. This will have a major impact on Te Awa’s already over-stretched budget and has forced us to reduce the size of the Spring issue.

Members can help reduce costs by opting to receive their copy as a PDF, which has the lowest environmental footprint.

Please email options.magazine@greens.org.nz if you want to record your preference for a PDF.

Shenagh Gleeson is acting editor of Te Awa

Ron Elder and Pip Stevenson are Te Awa Board Co-convenors

Interested in the Policy Priorities for 2018?

Hugh Ferguson Recently members have been letting their

policy

networkers know they would like to be involved in the Issue Groups and Review Groups for 2018.

That’s great, but it would make things a bit easier for the Policy Committee if you could register your interest by commenting in the Policies area on the Members Website, here: https://members.greens.org.nz/policy/policies-2018-indicateyour-interest. Thanks for getting involved!

Hugh Ferguson is a member of the Policy Committee and is on the Wellington province executive

Photo Rangatahi present their views on the Zero Carbon Bill to Climate Change Minister James Shaw

GE

Free

Northland

is

buzzing

with

Wanted: Graphic designers – volunteer roles

excitement

The Fundraising and Marketing Committee (FunMark)

celebrating our recent big win in the Environment Court against Federated Farmers of NZ (FFNZ), regarding the new Northland Regional Policy Statement (RPS). We have achieved strong precautionary GE/GMO provisions and other valuable wording in the new RPS, which dovetails nicely with the precautionary and prohibitive GMO provisions in the Auckland Unitary Plan.

The new RPS has been six years in the making. We have fought hard, and we have won against those with deep pockets, who care little about the protection of our environment, biosecurity and the valuable enterprises of existing GE-free primary producers.

Our profuse thanks go to all the original submitters and interested parties, including Taitokerau mana whenua, who supported the beneficial precautionary GE/GMO provisions in the proposed RPS, and to those who gave donations, large and small, to help us fight against a series of vexatious appeals by FFNZ to remove those provisions. We PREVAILED! Whangarei District Council led the charge as the appellant, with about 25 interested parties, supported by GE Free Taitokerau and Soil&Health Association’s legal counsel.

Principal Environment Court Judge Newhook slammed FFNZ in his unequivocal 12 April 2018 decision in our favour.

Our profuse thanks also go to the Green Party’s Northern Province, the Whangarei Greens and the wonderful Jeanette Fitzsimons for their ongoing support.

Ngā mihi nui.

is looking for accomplished graphic designers to join its group of professional volunteers and help fulfil its role as kaitiaki/ guardians of the Green Party brand, with a particular focus on empowering our branches and volunteers with up-to-date knowledge and tools.

But this is no small task. Whether it’s a sticker or a billboard, keeping Green Party communications professional, consistent and accessible takes time and talent. So, we’re looking for professionals with a sharp eye for detail in print and/or digital design disciplines (photography skills a bonus, but not essential) to contribute on a semi-regular basis.

You’d be supporting, and under the supervision of, a committee member who is an experienced senior creative director. There will some be basic, easy tasks. But we’d also be looking for someone to contribute a fresh eye and fresh ideas, and be part of growing and evolving the brand output and brand standards, from social media to merchandise design.

We’re after designers who are committed to the party long term and keen to jump in the deep end of the party’s visual identity. Your skills could include any of the following: • Traditional graphic design • Digital advertising • Working with brand manuals • Typography • Web design/UI/UX • Photography • Illustration • Video editing • Social media • Document design • Merchandise and product design.

Photo Supporters celebrate Whangarei District Council’s vote in 2013 to progress working with other councils in Auckland and Northland on prohibitive GE policies Zelka Linda Grammer is the chair of GE Free Taitokerau and spokesperson on local government issues for GE Free NZ

You’d be working remotely with your own Adobe Creative Suite, but there’s potential to meet and collaborate with the committee, Party staff, and other volunteers around the country.

To find out more, email funmark@greens.org.nz, and please include your portfolio/website/Linkedin details.

Letter/FunMark

A big GE/GMO win for Northland Zelka Linda Grammer

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Call to action emerges from Women’s Hui Debs Martin and Kerry Tankard

Our networks

Around 50 women and seven children met for a weekend

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of discussion, challenging thinking and solutions at the Green Women’s Hui, held 22-24 June at Apumoana Marae, Rotorua.

Much effort was spent by the organisers – especially Kaya Sparke and her whanau – to deliver quality childcare and to better integrate our children into the programme. Wholesome vegetarian kai was prepared and shared by all.

After being warmly welcomed onto Apumoana Marae, people were encouraged to deliver their mihimihi in te reo. That fostered a weekend of support, encouragement and challenge.

Catherine Delahunty rounded off Friday evening by delivering extracts from her show “Question Time Blues”, keeping us hooting with laughter.

It was a joy to sleep in the wharenui, and two kaumatua shared stories full of wily kuia who thwarted plans to put a road through the pa site, and a careful programme of rangatahi engagement, skills development and rebuilding the marae.

Saturday morning was full of intense and lively discussions, starting with the Long Term Plan review led by the Strategic Planning Facilitation Group. Marama Davidson and Jan Logie were with us, and talked about being part of government, highlighting some of the work being done, e.g. Jan’s work on the Domestic Violence – Victims’ Protection Bill. Their honesty in the challenges we face, and also their passion for what we can and are achieving, was illuminating for many.

After lunch we joined the children to plant harakeke in a swampy stream flowing into the Rotorua Moana. The korero of the replanting of this area, the history of iwi land grabs, and planting alongside our tamariki were engaging and empowering.

Later we held several important discussions about supporting our Green women in politics, and looking at ways to encourage Debs Martin is a co-convenor of Green Women’s Network and Kerry Tankard is a member of the network and a branch member in Kirikiriroa-Hamilton

others to engage, including in politics outside the Green Party, and more broadly within our context of the Asia Pacific Greens Federation and the Global Greens.

Then we held a debrief about the rough ride of 2017. In break-out groups, we shared our own recollections of the journey from 2017 until now. We decided to send our support to Metiria Turei, and to continue to fight for the social justice she campaigned on. For many, this was both an intense and cathartic session. An equally robust discussion of the role of the Policy Committee, led ably by Policy Co-convenor Caroline Glass and some of the policy networkers present, highlighted the importance of understanding what our networks are for, and how we can engage more. In the changing political and party landscape, we recognise that processes to elicit the views of our membership will need to keep pace.

After much korero and work by a small committee, we drafted our Call to Action. This Call to Action is a living document for those of us at the Green Women’s hui, and we hope that it will resonate with other networks and members of the Green Party.

In it we honour much: our commitment to Te Tiriti, the hard work by our Members of Parliament and those who have quietly beavered away in the party for decades. We acknowledge the nasty oppressive politics that ultimately led to the loss of our previous co-leader, Metiria. We call upon the deep values of our Charter principles to guide the work of the party as we negotiate a very difficult environment and period in our own history. We acknowledge the structural patriarchy and the major injustices within Aotearoa New Zealand, and our desire that the Green Party be at the forefront of this mahi. Our thriving survival is at stake – and we call upon everyone in the party to help ensure we remain a potent and positive political force.

Green Party Women’s Network Call to Action

Following these important discussions, interspersed with morning yoga, and evening hot pool soaking, we ended our weekend with a light-hearted poroporoaki/farewell and paintings from our children. Our Green women’s hui was a powerful event, and we look forward to other such strong debates and engagement in the future.

We, the participants of the Green Party Women’s Network Hui, Rotorua, 22-24 June 2018, having had robust discussions: a. Reaffirm Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the founding document of Aotearoa New Zealand; b. Recall our Charter principles of ecological wisdom, social responsibility, appropriate decision-making and non-violence; c. Deeply appreciate the efforts of the Green Party, especially our Members of Parliament; d. Remember the decades of dedicated effort upon which Green Party is founded; e. Are cognisant of the inherent challenges the Green Party faces as a part of Government, making some compromise of our principles and policies inevitable; f. Being mindful of serious concerns across our membership about the perceived disconnection between our core party values and some recent decisions; g. Recognise also the need to maintain our party’s distinctive identity as critical to our party’s survival; h. Aware of the risk that, if we fail to uphold the principles set out in our charter, our party may lose support; and i. Acknowledge with profound appreciation the contribution and sacrifice that former co-leader Metiria Turei made regarding the kaupapa of the underprivileged.

Photos Women’s Hui participants at the planting of flax on the shore at Lake Rotorua A group discussion at Apumoana Marae Co-leader Marama Davidson planting flax Photos by Fiona Glennie

Further, we also urge our Green members of parliament, in honouring the charter, Te Tiriti and all four principles, to: 6. More visibly and meaningfully address inequitable distribution of wealth in Aotearoa New Zealand to counteract oppressive economic structures and systems such as neoliberalism; and 7. Continue to honour and uphold the importance of the work that Metiria Turei contributed to the party.

Our networks

We pledge to: 1. Support our members of parliament to advocate and advance the charter, including Te Tiriti and our four guiding principles; 2. Honour Metiria Turei by continuing to forcefully advocate for transformative social justice to be implemented with due haste; 3. Boldly challenge oppressive patriarchy; 4. Actively support Green women to apply for positions of influence within our party and in society; and 5. Fully participate in the Women’s Networks of the Asia Pacific Greens Federation and the Global Greens.

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Giving back via a role in local government Paul Bailey

Our networks

Kia ora, Green Whanau. Ko Paul Bailey ahau. He kawana ahau mo Te Kaunihera a-rohe o Te Matau-a-Maui.

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I suppose I’ve always been someone who has challenged authority and social norms. It probably explains why I swear like a trooper and dress like a hobo. Life should be fun. I’m currently building a tiny house because I have the motivation and opportunity. The thought of life being all about the pursuit of material wealth appals me.

However I do have a sense of responsibility to the environment and community that I live in. Because I have particular skill sets and experience, I figured that the best way to give back was to become a councillor for Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. I became reasonably well-known in Napier due to the media profile I gained during five years of battles against the oil and gas industry and the Ruataniwha Dam. So when the dam became an election issue in 2016 I was ideally placed to take advantage of the community’s opposition to the project. People already knew where and why I stood on issues. Also, there were two vacant seats in my ward and the Havelock North water contamination occurred during the campaign. Luck in timing plays a big part in electoral success, but it needs to be backed up with hard work. The 8846 votes I received amount to six times the population of Woodville (where I was brought up), and I feel a great weight of responsibility on my shoulders every day because of that.

Given that I stood as an independent, I feel under no obligation to follow Green Party policy, which has been written to instruct caucus, not local government. But what I do is to consider any decisions through the lens of the Charter. At the end of the day, local government members are not well supported by the party, which is unfortunate because we are the ones implementing much of central government policy. It’s Paul Bailey is a member of the Green Party’s Hawke’s Bay branch and a Hawke’s Bay Regional Councillor

exciting being part of the circus and you do have a wonderful opportunity to influence direction. Admittedly I’m part of the most progressive regional council in Aotearoa so I’m able to change status-quo thinking, but I still have to convince a majority around the table to achieve anything.

The project that gives me the most satisfaction is being ambassador for Tutira (lake). Tutira was an absolute mess and is an embarrassment for the local and wider Hawke’s Bay community. They all want to restore the health of Tutira. My role is to simply be on the ground and smooth any stormy waters between the stakeholders. Not only has it been great to work with a community working on common goals, it has also been very rewarding building relationships with Maungaharuru Tangitu.

One of the more rewarding aspects of being on council is the opportunity you have to build relationships with Tangata Whenua, not only on a whanau, hapu and iwi level, but also coming to grips with the treaty settlement entities. I take the view that we have to make these relationships work, and so I spend a lot of effort reaching a better understanding of Tangata Whenua’s point of view. It’s a great journey to be on.

Given all that, local government is heaps of fun. It’s mentally challenging if you take it seriously and you get to meet the most interesting people. Occasionally you get to go on ratepayerfunded jaunts such as helicopter rides. If you are thinking of standing, the only suggestion I would make is to start getting yourself known in your local community now. It takes a long time for enough people to come to the realisation that you are not a complete nut bar and actually have something very useful to contribute - the world seen through the lens of the Green Party charter.

Photo Hawke’s Bay Regional Council member Paul Bailey at Lake Waikopiro, where an air curtain is being tested to improve water quality and habitats in lakes Waikopiro and Tutira

APGF catch-up: first annual report, webinar series, upcoming AGM and Australian study tour Metiria Turei Kia ora koutou katoa from the Asia Pacific Greens Federation.

The APGF is a federation of national Green parties, and social and environmental organisations from countries across Asia and Oceania working to realise the Global Greens Charter.

Our members reach from Aotearoa in the south, to Mongolia in the north, and Lebanon and Japan to the west and east.

I have had the great opportunity to work with the APGF as Secretary, since Claire Waghorn took maternity leave for her second child. It has been wonderful working for our Green values in the international context with people from all over the world.

And I also get to work with great people like Penny AllmanPayne, the APGF Convenor, Rachana Shresthra from Nepal who supports our Women’s Network, and Riwa Ghawi from Lebanon who supports our Youth Network.

I want to celebrate the publication of our first APGF Annual Report. You can find it on our website at https://www. asiapacificgreens.org/. This report describes the work of 15 Green Parties in our region, all with different political challenges and strengths, all committed to the Global Greens values and principles.

In other news, the APGF Women’s Network is holding a series of webinars to bring Green women from all over the globe together, on Zoom, to hear from leaders and activists on the challenges and opportunities for women on Green issues. I had the privilege of presenting at the June webinar, and in July we had Meth Jimenez from the Philippines. More are planned, so please join us if you can - or if you know women you think could be great contributors, let me know. We are also preparing an online Gender Equity Toolkit as a resource for all APGF members to use to improve gender representation. We expect to have this completed in December as the first step towards a longer term strategy for the APGF. So if you are interested in the Women’s network, contact Rachana Shresthra.

We are planning now for both the APGF AGM in October and an Australian Study Tour in December. If anyone is interested in the study tour, contact Melanie as your rep on the APGF Council. APGF funding support is limited to nonOECD countries but a self-funded participant is most welcome.

And finally, the NZ Young Greens have been working closely with APGF’s Riwa Ghawi on builidng the APGF Youth Network – thank you! The network is growing and we are always looking for more input.

Former Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei is secretary of the Asia Pacific Greens Federation

For updates on our work and campaigns, check our website and our facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/ AsiaPacificGreens. We would love to have you.

APGF Contacts Metiria Turei, Secretary metiria.turei.apgf@gmail.com Rachana Shresthra, Women’s Network rachana.nepaligreens@gmail.com Riwa Ghawi, Youth Network riwaghawi@gmail.com Melanie Chapman, NZ rep international.secretary@greens.org.nz Photos (top) Young Greens from the Asia Pacific Greens Federation (below) APGF Bangladeshi women representatives

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07

The “beating green heart of government” celebrates Shenagh Gleeson

From the party

Greens were in a jubilant mood at their annual general

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meeting in Palmerston North last month.

After a tumultuous year that saw heart-wrenching lows and astonishing highs, members rose to their feet time and again to acclaim progress on environmental and social issues.

There was also recognition of the challenges posed by being in the coalition and acceptance of the need to continue work on improving the relationship between caucus and the party.

A total of 127 delegates from 58 electorates attended the 10th annual meeting, held at Palmerston North Boys High School on 18-19 August. Individual party members, MPs and party staff contributed to an overall attendance of up to 228 people.

After a great mihi whakatau from local people, James Shaw got the meeting off to a rousing start, paying tribute to members for getting the party into a position in government that allows substantial progress to be made on a wide range of fronts.

It was a hell of a ride through a campaign that took its toll, James said. “But what got us through and delivered us back into

Parliament, and into government for the first time ever, was you.

I am in awe of you.”

Addressing her first annual meeting as co-leader Marama Davidson also celebrated the wins being made and added a new one to the list. The review of the Overseas Investment Act will now look at putting the protection of water at the heart of decision-making.

“Changing the law and making water extraction one of the issues to be considered when overseas corporates apply to buy rural land would ensure that this and future governments recognise that water is ours, and that it’s a vital natural asset,” she said.

“Water should not be for sale to the highest bidder. Changing the law is a key step towards protecting it for the generations ahead. We need to ensure that we are not giving away water to foreign corporations to bottle, export, and reap profits from, at the expense of New Zealand’s long-term interests.”

Both James and Marama emphasised there’s still a lot more to do.

Beyond these public presentations there was much work done in a raft of areas (and much socialising and enjoyment of the wonderful food provided by local Greens).

Office holders were confirmed, with James, Marama and Katy Watabe (party-co-convenor) re-elected unopposed.

Wiremu Winitana is the new party co-convenor, Caroline Glass continues as female policy co-convener and Jack McDonald is the new male policy co-convener. Ron Elder, Pam Henson and Pippa Stevenson were elected unopposed to the Te Awa Board.

Photos Party Co-leader James Shaw addresses the meeting.

Caucus and party members show their approval of proceedings.

Photos by Rick Swaan

From the party

“There is no time for complacency or half-measures. No time for tinkering around the edges of the status quo. We know that what is required is transformative and systemic change,” Marama said. Or as James put it, “We’re just warming up”.

The meeting approved raising the membership subscription from $20 to $30, while retaining the $5 fee for low-income people. As a first-time attendee at a Greens annual meeting, I was impressed to see consensus decision-making in action on this issue, with outgoing party co-convenor John Ranta guiding discussion with great skill.

On day two, Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced a work programme to tackle waste by looking at options to better manage waste going into landfills, improving gathering of data on waste, and options to expand product stewardship schemes.

The work will be done under the Waste Minimisation Act, which was left on the shelf gathering dust under National, Eugenie said. She paid tribute to the contributions of former Green MPs and Green members and supporters for giving the party a solid track record on reducing waste.

Shenagh Gleeson was a delegate for Coromandel and is the acting editor of Te Awa

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New party co-convenor Wiremu Winitana Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announces action on waste.

Next Gen Climate change puts plans for the future at risk Bethany Cavalcante

Our networks

Climate change is taking a toll on us whether we like it

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or not. It’s ruining our environment, our health and our futures.

As a 13-year-old high school student with a passion for current events and social justice, the continuing effects are becoming more and more noticable. We have had a change of government since I last wrote, and I’m still hoping that soon there will be strong action on climate change and for our future.

One of the biggest contributors to climate is transport and how its carbon footprint affects us every day. Cars get used every day, they can be handy and useful but also toxic and polluting. Buses, although still a polluting vehicle, can be a good alternative. The more we use them, and our cars less, air pollution will hopefully reduce. E-Bikes are popular and fun!

They are easy to ride for everyone and have a really small carbon footstep. Finally, we have trains. We need more of them! Maybe trains could replace buses eventually.

I think the best outcome for the future is much less focus on enabling the use of cars or electric ones, and more focus on accessible public transport, safe biking and walking. Public transport needs to be cheaper though.

As someone who has a passion for hospitality and plans to be a chef, I have noticed how my dream career could affect the planet and contribute to global warming. It might not be the biggest cause but every part counts. Transporting food from one side of the planet to the other, and food processing factories releasing fumes into the air, contribute to our carbon footprints.

Having local produce or community gardens could reduce this kind of carbon footprint rapidly. Having small lifestyle blocks and food farms closer to town, or small patches of garden at the restaurants, and planning communities that include food gardens could mean good, fresh produce available nearby. When Bethany Cavalcante is a Year 9 student attending Fairfield College in Hamilton and a member of the Kirikiriroa Hamilton Branch

I’m a young adult starting my business in the industry I hope we’ll have created communities where food is part of life, rather than the latest trend to be photographed with.

In 10 years I would like to see this earth a happier, healthier place, with fewer carbon emissions and more local food production in and around our towns. I will be 23, fresh out of university and planning my next steps into adulthood. I want transformational action now so that my children and future generations can build upon the changes and develop intergenerational understanding of how to nurture our earth and the health of all. We have been hearing it for years but it really will keep getting worse and now is the time to take action.

In the first of a new feature called Next Gen, Bethany Cavalcante writes about climate change and her hopes for the future. Submissions from other young people are welcome. The deadline for the next issue is 15 October.

—Editor

Photo Bethany Cavalcante (left) and Camilla CartyMelis raising awareness of climate change at the Western Community Centre in Kirikiriroa-Hamilton

Young Greens running for the Mental Health Foundation Conor Bryant On 1 July a group of six Young Greens, including MP

Chlöe Swarbrick, ran the Wellington Half Marathon for the Mental Health Foundation (MHF). The team raised $1,325.76 for the charity from a total of 35 donations. The MHF does a wide variety of work for people needing help with mental illnesses. It provides information and training to the sufferers and families, and also advocates on relevant policies. Mental illness is an issue that many New Zealanders struggle with.

The event started early on a Sunday morning. The weather was not ideal as a storm had just rolled in. The result was getting a bit cold and a lot wet. The race started at Westpac stadium and continued along the waterfront until a little past the airport, where we turned around and finished back where we started. The well-renowned Wellington wind pushed us along the way.

All-in-all the whole event was a success, even if the weather left something to be desired. Every member completed the half marathon and survived the day, whilst raising funds for a good cause. The team was proud to raise the money for this organisation as it is doing great work for the people who need it. I would like to thank those who donated to the cause and congratulate the team on doing so well. I hope to see you guys back next year!

Photo Young Greens (left-right) Conor Bryant, Annabelle Mcarthy, Linda Ly, Harry Rozga, Chlöe Swarbrick, Anne Rijnink Conor Bryant is co-convenor for Young Greens at Vic Uni

Interesting sessions at Going West Writers Festival Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman will take part in a

panel discussing women’s progress at the Going West Writers Festival in Auckland in September.

The discussion, called ‘Women Then, Women Now’/ ‘Wahine o Mua, Wahina o Naianei’, will feature Golriz, Dame Fiona Kidman, Sandra Coney and Lizzie Marvelly in conversation with Carol Hirschfield. The event will be held at the Titirangi Memorial Hall on Saturday, 15 September, from 11.45am to 12.45pm.

Conservation pioneer and founder of Wingspan, Debbie Stuart, also features in the festival line-up. She’ll be talking about her newly-released book, ‘The Hunters: the Precarious Lives of NZ’s Birds of Prey’, to fellow falconer and journalist Rachel Stewart. This session will be held at the Titirangi Memorial Hall on Sunday, 16 September, from 9.15am to 10am.

Bequests are a wonderful way to make a difference. The Green Party has already been the grateful recipient of several bequests, and a number of people have been in touch to say that they are remembering the Green Party in their wills too. It is so kind of these generous people to make this sort of lasting commitment to the Green Party.

Thank you.

If you are considering including us in your will, please let us know. You can email sonja.deely@greens.org.nz or call her on (04) 801-5105.

Our networks

Your will matters

11

Pursuing our Green dreams in a tumultuous time Marama Davidson

From the benches

Kia ora whānau Te Paati Kaakariki!

12

On 8 April 2018 I was elected Female Co-leader. As I write it has been nearly four months since I started in this role.

Navigating the current political context as co-leader and as part of your team of MPs is both an enormous honour and one of the toughest challenges in my life. And I have barely started.

In the nine months since election we have made some incredible progress as confidence and supply partners under this Labour Government. An end to new deep sea oil exploration, establishing the welfare expert advisory group as part of overhauling a cruel system, winding up polluting irrigation, the biggest increase to conservation funding in 12 years, massive public transport investment, Jan Logie winning domestic violence leave in workplaces, nationwide kōrero on the Zero Carbon bill, further insulation subsidies to warm up whare, beginning the gender pay gap work, piloting free mental health services for 18-25 year olds, a move to ban rental letting fees, and, very recently, starting the public discussion to design new indicators for our nation’s wellbeing, and more…

In that time we have also had to grit our teeth.

There was the bottled water Cresswell decision, Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Act, mining permits for conservation land, seabed mining permits in Taranaki – all have been felt deeply by many of our supporters and members. This is part of why the political reality for smaller parties in their first term of a coalition government is to lose an average of 20% support. For us that would mean not making it back into Parliament next term.

We know we have to maintain the collective faith of our base while growing our movement. This comes down to establishing political sustainability for our charter and our values. It means honouring the whakapapa of our party as our stronghold as we respond to the changed political context we now sit in. It means celebrating all our wins at every opportunity. It means having a clear plan and a narrative that immediately excites people to be a Marama Davidson is co-leader of the party

part of our work for progressive change. It means learning from our challenges and holding our line.

We are still setting ourselves up in many ways in our new political environment. We are coming out the other side of an election that shook us to pieces. We are finally setting up our parliamentary office and are nearly there. We are adjusting to a massive squeeze on our financial resourcing and a hugelyreduced team of MPs, from 14 last term to eight MPs this term.

We are still finding our place and I am proud of what we have been able to achieve in this tumultuous time.

I am humbled to be part of a team of MPs giving their all to our Green dreams in this confronting context. We are committed to being a united, focussed, strategic force as a smaller team. We are acutely aware of the challenges facing us as a party. We have a responsibility to honour this opportunity to get some real work done for people and our Earth.

We will deliver on our confidence and supply priorities. We will campaign on the issues that differentiate us and give people a reason to need our unique Green voice in parliament.

None of it can be done without our members and our supporters. Our grassroots presence in communities across Aotearoa is the ONLY way that our parliamentary work gets real cutthrough. You are our kanohi kitea to connect with people’s hearts and minds. Strengthening our connections with diverse groups and communities is how our Green narrative gets real traction.

And to ask this of you requires us in parliament to provide our branches with the leadership, the resourcing, a plan and most importantly - the hope and enthusiasm for our ideals and the sense that we are heading in the right direction.

We are not there yet. I know you will hold us to account.

Thank you for your sacrifices that got us to where we are, thank you for your faith.

Photo Green Party MPs (minus Julie Anne Genter) at a caucus retreat in Rotorua in May

You can’t divorce genuine action on climate change from social justice Chlöe Swarbrick If your modus operandi is purchasing organic food,

scale farming through to expansive oil drilling, because, they say, consumers have choice. They’re able to justify a low-wage economy, because, they say, workers have choice.

Consumers have the choice to ride the bus or drive their petrol car. Workers have the choice to work for a good boss or a bad boss (but heaven forbid they engage in industrial action and demand better choice). If our planet ends up in a hyperbolic ball of flame and climate change, it was individual choice that did it, not our systemic mismanagement.

Choice and its sibling, individual responsibility, are scapegoats for systemic political action.

The irony of a web of law and tax that subsidises businesses to pay workers poverty wages, or spew commercial waste into indigenous waters, is that we ultimately end up privatising profit and socialising cost. Citizens are underwriting bad business.

The social and environmental crises we face are not natural.

They’re man-made, as is the system that underpins them. That means we have every ability to change the system – for the better of our people, and our planet.

That’s why I joined our party – only the Greens are committed to that transformational change.

Photo Chlöe and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage check out a kaka nest at the Polhill Reserve project in Aro Valley, Wellington. Extensive trapping and restoration have allowed native birds like tieke, kaka and kereru to return and thrive.

Chlöe Swarbrick is a Green Party MP and spokesperson for Education, Internal Affairs, Sensible Drug Law Reform, Local Government, Arts Culture & Heritage, Small Business, Broadcasting, and Youth

From the benches

shopping with reusable bags, sipping fair-trade coffee out of a reusable cup, composting your waste and opting for cycling over driving, I applaud your action to reduce your impact on the planet. It’s important. It contributes. And it helps to raise consciousness of climate change and environmental degradation.

If, however, you simultaneously wag your finger at financially- and time-poor parents for buying ready-made meals, or begrudge people on benefits the humanity/‘luxury’ of a weekly coffee, you’re probably missing the point.

Right there, in our daily assumptions and prejudices, lie some of the more salient examples of why environmental and social issues are inextricably linked. We have a system that produces and even incentivises harmful defaults: plastic bags, junk food, petrol guzzling. Operating outside of those systemic defaults requires time, energy and money.

The inextricable connection between our social and environmental issues goes far deeper than that, though. Evidence demonstrates that the wealthiest in our country, and our world, are responsible for the large majority of climate-changing emissions, yet have the resources to continue moving further and further away from their destructive impact.

Meanwhile, the poorest and most vulnerable in our societies contribute the least in emissions but hugely disproportionately suffer the consequences of rising sea levels, poisoned waterways, polluted air and a climate-changed world.

It was eye-opening to see the op-eds subsequent to the election of Marama Davidson as our co-leader, accompanied by apocalyptic predictions that the Greens were turning their backs on climate change in favour of social justice. Such hot-takes miss a lot, not least that Marama has spent swathes of her life advocating for the environment (notably, indigenous leadership on environmental issues).

The slightest bit more research by such commentators would uncover that our charter is explicitly holistic in its four pillars: entrenching values of ecological wisdom, social responsibility, appropriate decision-making and non-violence. You don’t get a paradigm shift towards genuine sustainability without all four. And, it’s worth remembering, they’ve been there from the grassroots genesis of our party.

As Jeanette Fitzsimons succinctly said, “We have an economic system that exploits both people and the planet.”

To individualise the systemic problem of climate change by morphing it into an issue of conscious consumerism is to scapegoat ‘lazy’ everyday people just trying to get by, while those who make a fortune depleting the commons laugh their way to the bank. Worse than ignoring the crux of the issue, it pits citizens against each other, exhausting time and energy and headspace that would be better spent trying to collectively build an equitable, environmentally-friendly system change.

To individualise the systemic problems of inequality, homelessness or high rates of incarceration in a wealthy and supposedly enlightened country like ours is to uphold a fundamentally flawed house of cards at the expense of our fellow human beings. It’s also proven to be a spectacular failure if we’re genuinely seeking to solve these issues.

Under the status quo, rhetoric-heavy politicians are able to justify environmentally disastrous activity, from industrial-

13

What’s a Musterer?

Gareth Hughes What on earth is a Musterer? The Greens are the only

From the benches/Flaxroots action

party in Parliament to have one, but what do they do? Other parties would call that person a whip, and the role is to organise a party’s parliamentary work. But rather than metaphorically ‘whip’ our team, the Greens would rather shepherd or muster.

That’s why in my office I have a framed whip (with a note to break glass in an emergency) but also a shepherd’s crook.

It’s my second term as Musterer and I view it as being the organic, sustainable grease-in-the-gears of our parliamentary work. I help support our team with effective organisation and administration so our MPs can worry about their important work in Parliament or select committee. Every day we publish a house programme with the parliamentary agenda, how we are voting and which MP is on duty when. We are allowed two MPs to be away for our full eight votes to be cast and I have the unenviable task of granting leave. This low leave allocation is the reason why sometimes our MPs can’t attend events while Parliament is in session. I meet with Labour and NZ First every week to discuss parliamentary business and strategy, and I keep track of our select committee membership and our expenses.

The Musterer role also comes with a lot of committee commitments. I sit on the Business Committee which sets the parliamentary calendar, its order of business, select committee memberships and much more. I sit on the Officers of Parliament Committee which appoints and sets budgets for the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, the Auditor and Controller General and the Ombudsman. As a member of the Parliamentary Services Commission we are responsible for the parliamentary precincts and Parliamentary Service. Something I’m working on here is a solar-powered Parliament. I also sit on the Standing Orders Committee, which reviews Parliament’s rules and we have made some important improvements. Lastly I sit on the ICT Committee dealing with Parliament’s IT needs.

As well as the Musterer role, I also do my regular work chairing the Social Services and Community Committee and being a member of the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Committee. I feel tired just writing this.

It’s a privilege to be able to assist our Green team’s parliamentary work, and I want to acknowledge Holly, Jeremy, Nive and Hamish who support me in this role.

There you have it - not a high profile or glamorous job, but an important one that must be done. Maybe that’s why it’s called Must-erer.

14

Hawke’s Bay Greens Hawke’s Bay Greens ran another very successful

fundraising quiz night on Friday, 13 July.

The quiz night is a highlight in the HB Greens’ calendar and this year we had close to 150 attendees – not all of them Green voters but we’re working on it!

The evening was full of quirky questions (unique to this quiz night), auctions and raffles of items donated by local businesses and, of course, plenty of supper. The support from local enterprises for our prizes is really encouraging.

Photo Teams mull over tricky questions at HB Greens quiz night

Photo Gareth makes a new friend during a visit to Wellington Animal Hospital.

Gareth Hughes has been a Green MP since 2010, and is currently Musterer and spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Energy and Resources, Primary Industries, Science and Innovation, Animal Welfare, ICT, Tourism, and Wellington issues

Zooming democratic success Philippa Stevenson Greens

pride

themselves

on

inclusiveness,

consensus decision-making and strong adherence to democratic values, but with members spread thinly nationwide getting together has always been problematic.

Until Zoom. The online, video meeting technology has become a party success story, says General Secretary, Gwen Shaw.

“It is a Zoom revolution,” she says.

This new-look version of ‘face-to-face’ meetings – or F2F to use the acronym-loving party’s term – is so easy. Branches, provinces, groups, networks, committees, trainers, committees – you name the Green grouping – are booking and holding meetings on the Zoom.us website. F2Fs are flourishing.

The pinnacle of the party’s use of Zoom, so far, was the 141-delegate Special Convened Meeting (SCM) last October that decided whether the Green Party would join the Labour-led Coalition Government.

Shaw explains how it came about. “Our constitution allows us to have a conference where places are linked together by such ‘real-time communication technology (e.g. secure video/audio conferencing), as may be designated by the executive.’

During the 2017 election campaign, organising teams had started to use the Zoom system.

“It was cheap, reliable even in rural areas – and we could see participants’ faces,” she says.

Post election, as it became clear an SCM could be necessary, thoughts turned to how one could be held. The fraught, downto-the-wire nature of the coalition negotiations presented special challenges.

Shaw takes up the story. “It was obvious that a physical meeting in Wellington was not going to work because we could see no clear timeline – and we would have to move fast as the three-way negotiations worked their way to a conclusion.

“The meeting would need to be highly confidential. We would have to consider a remit and delegates would need to make a decision and vote with no possibility of discussing the proposal in advance. There would need to be at least 170 people on the call, including delegates from all 71 electorates, with members of Expol [policy executive] and the Negotiating Team able to make presentations.

“The meeting would have to be called at very short notice and we would need to be able to notify all delegates – we couldn’t afford to miss anybody.

“It looked possible we could use Zoom. It had the flexibility to require pre-registration of delegates, so we knew who was on the call; to enable break-out rooms for some discussion; to take a vote on the call; and although only delegates could be registered onto the call, it would enable electorate groups to meet privately.

“Most importantly, because there was really no cost involved, every electorate should be able to put up their full quota of delegates to be part of the voting process. An absolute win for democratic participation.”

Another benefit of Greens all over the country Zooming into the well-attended SCM was that it served as an introduction to the technology.

Since then Zoom use has risen for all manner of Green gatherings, from two people to a well-attended post-Budget briefing and a monthly meeting for branch co-convenors.

Another SCM held for delegates to hear from the two candidates in the election for the female party co-leader attracted 144 delegates representing 70 electorates. “Zoom has become a party success story,” Shaw says.

Individuals can register on Zoom.us at no cost and hold meetings, free, for 40 minutes.

For longer meetings, bookings can be made on the Greens’ Zoom account by contacting Kate Mitcalfe at head office (you can email her at kate.mitcalfe@greens.org.nz).

People invited to a meeting simply follow the link in the emailed notice, which doesn’t require registration or an account with Zoom. For the first meeting it’s advisable to click the link early to download a small piece of software.

From the party

The

Philippa Stevenson is the Waikato Branch convenor and a fan of Zoom meetings

15

BRR and the fiscal future of the Green Party Paul Kelland and Shanti Ahluwalia (with thanks to Ricardo Menéndez March and Teanau Tuiono) In 2017, the Green Party and the Labour Party announced

the Budget Responsibility Rules (BRR). This committed the parties to running operating surpluses, reducing net crown debt and remaining within recent spending trends in government.

Less controversially, it focused on long term investments, progressive taxation and broader measures of success in the budget. Adherence to the rules would be overseen by an independent body.

There was criticism of the rules internally, the procedures followed to implement them, and debate about their consistency with our member-led policy. Both candidates for Female Coleader openly criticised the BRR while campaigning.

We are now part of a government with the BRR as policy.

This is at a time when nurses, teachers and other public service staff are grossly underpaid and undertaking the most significant industrial action in a generation; children go to school hungry; thousands of people live in cars, garages or damp, unsafe houses; hospitals are crumbling and turning away patients; and significant investment to restore our environment and limit the effects of climate change is desperately urgent.

The BRR reflects neoliberal ideas of “fiscal responsibility” that are outdated and facing growing public rejection. It adheres to economic myths and places arbitrary political constraints on the government to address these crises.

The party must reject the BRR and develop a fiscal position that can deliver on our charter principles.

Narratives

Greens have their say

The BRR is about a narrative: How do we build trust with voters? How will we deliver on our promises in government? But the BRR is ineffective as a political tool. There is no indication it has improved the party’s or government’s reputation on the economy. Business confidence has fallen and relentless media attacks continue.

The BRR will damage long term progressive aspirations in Aotearoa, promoting the idea that, “Limited government is good government”; effectively, that National was a responsible economic manager and we will follow its path. This only makes it more difficult to win the argument about how we will deliver the change we promote.

Shifting away from solely a GDP growth measure is promising, but this is contradictory if we commit to small government and conservative economic measures. Consistent messaging is paramount for both our members and voters.

The BRR does not address the gaps within orthodox economic thinking, which is viewed more critically by the public as it continually delivers poor social and environmental outcomes. The Greens must take responsibility to shift the narrative.

16

The Operating Budget and Debt

New Zealand has persistent current account deficits—more money flows overseas than we receive. This happens when we import more than we export or when overseas investors take their profits offshore, which increased with public asset sales, most notably our Australian-owned banks.

Combining the current account deficit with committing to operating surpluses means the burden falls on the private sector: more household debt and selling properties and businesses to overseas investors.

Public debt is low comparative to other nations, but household debt to income is a whopping 160%, among the OECD’s highest, growing from under 100% 20 years ago.

Private debt is what leads to recession, not public debt, and our economic policy explicitly considers both. Ignoring private debt and our trade deficit is irresponsible economics.

Co-leader James Shaw stated that “there was debate to be had around the debt target” and “we will be wanting to review [the BRR] closer to the [2020] election.” However, simply tweaking the rate we pay down debt or the target we aim for will not address the shortcomings of the BRR. Expenditure

The BRR’s limitation on government spending has been very controversial, especially after chronic underfunding of social infrastructure and environmental projects by the National government.

Shaw also stated that the government has “more capacity for additional spending” within the BRR. This may be true, but our current crisis was created by recent spending trends. Further committing to recent spending trends signals that the new government’s promise of transformative social policy is empty.

There is seemingly nothing within our policy consistent with this expenditure limit. Members are rightly concerned about whether this, and the other rules, commit us to ‘neoliberalism’, preventing us from effectively enacting the charter principles in government. So far, insufficient investment to repair the previous government’s damage suggests it does.

The Independent Body

Divorcing economics from real-world impacts, and delegating its knowledge and practice to business-minded academics is a goal of neoliberalism. The body proposed to oversee adherence to the BRR hands oversight of the mechanism for social and environmental wellbeing to unelected technocrats, suggesting there is no moral judgment to be made and politicians shouldn’t hold this power. This sets a dangerous precedent.

The time to revoke the BRR commitment is now. We must build consensus around an alternative fiscal platform which can deliver on the promises of ecological wisdom and social responsibility.

Paul Kelland is co-convenor and Shanti Ahluwalia is equity officer of the Green Left Network

Harakeke, raranga and strategy Ben Ogilvy Having recently, finally, arrived in government, and with

SPFG currently looking at renewing our long term plan, I feel this is an important moment to discuss what the Party does. I’m talking specifically about the party outside of Parliament: our committees, branches, members and meetings. In this context I recently read an article* by Khylee Quince on Newsroom.com inspecting the misuse of Te Aupouri wāhine rangatira Meri Ngaroto’s whakataukī in a recent report: “Hutia te rito o te harakeke Kei whea to kōmako e kō?

He aha te mea nui o te Ao? Maku e kī atu, he tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata…”

If the heart of the harakeke was removed, where would the bellbird sing?

If I was asked what was the most important thing in the world I would be compelled to reply, it is people, it is people, it is people... where members support one another by organising trainings and sharing information about different community groups they’re connected to, and work in local residents’ associations, expat associations, in their Church, on their Marae, in Lions, Rotary, rugby, bridge or other clubs, all tied back together through the social centre of the branch, and finding ways they can work together as Greens.

In these groups our new shoots can grow stronger faster and stick around to support the next new members. It’s also where we reach new members and voters. Setting down roots isn’t a once-in-three-years activity, it’s a permanent presence doing good work in local neighbourhoods that means the party gets to advertise its credibility to communities without looking like cynical vote-grabbers.

With strong outer leaves, the newest members of the party will have a much more sheltered, supportive environment in which to grow. We will be a stronger party, capable of much greater things. I truly believe that by focusing on growing strong, deep roots, we will grow our support and make participating a more vibrant, fulfilling experience. If this is not our focus, I fear our bellbird will stop singing.

I’d love to continue this conversation beyond a single article, so please contact me if you would, too. Please contact SPFG and your local executive networker to share your thoughts as well.

Our party is democratic, so we must make our voices heard. *The full article can be read here: https://www.newsroom. co.nz/2018/07/05/141709/its-not-people-its-kaupapa

Ben Ogilvy is a Wellington Central Branch member and a former Young Greens’ co-convenor, Wellington Province officeholder and (briefly) national office worker

Greens have their say

The article contained a fantastic reminder of the context and true significance of the whakataukī. It speaks to the importance of whakapapa, the way our lives interconnect with our ancestors and descendants, and the whakataukī’s close connection with the metaphor of harakeke as the structure of healthy whanau (I recommend reading it in full). I am grateful to Ms Quince, as reading it crystalized and structured thoughts I’ve had on the party’s strategic direction for some time.

Thinking of the party with this metaphor, our current focus is on weaving ourselves into the right form. Every three years we focus on weaving ourselves into the best campaign we can to achieve as much influence as we can, and in between we work on finding better patterns to weave ourselves into. We give this project our all. We’ve all seen many brilliant, hardworking people (most of whom have been women in my experience) do magnificent things on the campaign trail.

Except there’s a problem with giving it our all. Continuing the harakeke metaphor, using every shoot to weave campaign after campaign won’t keep us healthy. The older leaves, the matua, are meant to protect the newer from strain that will damage them, but too often our newest members and volunteers, our newest shoots, are forced to take on demanding key leadership roles as more experienced members burn out. Every member I know has heard jokes about how if they’ve been to two branch meetings they must be the new co-convenor. These jokes show our party is not a strong, healthy plant. The jokes hide that we are not thinking about our party’s whakapapa – the people in the party’s history, and the people in the party’s future. The first two lines of the whakataukī above are relevant.

The party, therefore, needs to change focus from weaving to growing – but not necessarily numerically. Doubling our current membership would be nice, but any gardener knows growing too fast leaves a plant leggy and weak. The Green Party needs to grow strong.

I believe we will grow stronger by setting down roots – this means connecting with communities and focusing on building connections and relationships between Green people within them. To me, a Green Party growing strong roots is one where branches focus on sociability rather than logistics, and support their members to go for positions on school boards etc. It’s

17

Our people 18

A man before his time: Tony Gray, 1930–2018 Dave Kennedy

Staunch activist for peace: Christina Gibb, 1929-2018

In my low decile secondary school in Invercargill,

Born in Kent, England, in 1929, Christina emigrated to

in the early 1970s, English immigrant teacher, Tony Gray, had a colourful and eccentric presence. He would stumble theatrically into the classroom, wearing his braces and tweed jackets, and launch into lessons peppered with Goon impressions, and throwing contentious topics at the class to engender passionate debate. He taught us to question established thinking and to understand the power of a knowledgeable and articulate argument.

Tony was instrumental in forming the school’s Conservation Club and had students planting riparian strips, and protesting the industrial pollution of a local stream and the dumping of spent cathodes from the Tiwai smelter into Awarua Bay. He also had us staging street theatre to highlight the issues around the felling of native beech forests and the demise of refundable glass bottles. He taught us about the negative environmental effects of unrestrained capitalism.

Outside of teaching, Tony was a key member of the Southland Ecology Action Group and the Southland Branch of Forest and Bird. He wrote many well-researched and articulate submissions on behalf of these organisations over the years.

With other local activists, he successfully campaigned to stop the Invercargill City Council from using the local estuary as a tip, stopped the commercial extraction of fresh water from the middle of Fiordland and stalled a proposal for large-scale extraction of Mataura’s lignite to make liquid fuel.

Tony was a man ahead of his time. Almost 50 years ago he was castigating local retailers for the copious amounts of unnecessary packaging and trying to live sustainably on a lifestyle block. His political and environmental activism predated the Values Party and Greenpeace, and he mentored a generation of Southland activists. The founders of the iconic South Coast Environment Centre had been his students, and his early financial donations ensured its viability.

I hope Tony had some satisfaction in knowing that a former student and his daughter, Liz, collaborated to edit Te Awa. Tony’s legacy is a substantial one, and he will be much missed by his family, past students, trout fishing buddies and his many activist friends.

New Zealand with her ecologist husband, John Gibb, and their two children in 1957.

Christina had gained an MA in chemistry from Oxford and worked as a science teacher in Lower Hutt during the 1960s Profoundly affected by the destructiveness of war, Christina became increasingly politically active and was involved in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and anti-war and antiapartheid movements. She also worked in programmes for social equity, such as Prisoners’ Aid, Student Christian Movement, Amnesty International and Corso, and was an early supporter of the Values Party. After further study, gaining an LTh (Licenciate of Theology) and a Social Work Diploma, she became a parish assistant with the Inner City Ministry in Wellington, working with the homeless, aged and least-advantaged in society. She was then appointed warden of Frederick Wallis House (an ecumenical retreat and conference venue) in Lower Hutt in 1976.

In 1982 she moved to Dunedin to be near her daughter and granddaughter. She joined the Society of Friends (Quakers), worked as a counsellor for Rape Crisis and was a hands-on trustee for the social housing, sweat-equity project, Just Housing. In 1991-92, she spent three months as a voluntary worker in the huge, bleak detention centres for Vietnamese asylum seekers in Hong Kong. In 1994, she took the opportunity to assist indigenous Canadian groups who were opposing timber clearfelling by Fletcher Challenge. In 2004, in her mid-70s, Christina joined the Christian Peacemaker Team and went to live in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, spending a total of 13 months there over the following four years. Each time she returned to New Zealand she embarked on a country-wide tour of public meetings and speaking engagements.

A keen amateur botanist and an over-60s walker, Christina restored and covenanted a patch of native bush surrounding her home. She was a member of the Green Party for many years, and even in her 80s helped with pre-election leaflet drops. In later life, Christina declared her philosophy: ‘‘I see us as integrally part of the environment. We’re not detached from it. The atoms from which our bodies are made were forged in the stars a long time ago. We can’t survive without water, the plants and animals that make up the complete ecosystem. And, because of our huge power over the natural world, we have a correspondingly huge responsibility to look after it.’’

Dave Kennedy is a member of the Southland/Clutha branch and the Party’s SPFG, and a previous editor of Te Awa

Photo Christina Gibb with school children in Hebron in 2004

Green World, August 2018 Compiled by Lois Griffiths AUSTRALIA

Green Senator Lee Rhiannon has openly given her support to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla 2018. “The Israeli siege of Gaza has devastated the two million Palestinians living in what is effectively the world’s largest prison. Israel’s attacks on the people of Gaza make it guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Governments around the world have time and again failed the Palestinian people in not bringing an end to the Gaza blockade. Where governments fail to act, activists step in.”

•

Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson was on the women’s peace boat to Gaza in 2016. She has called on the NZ Government to condemn Israel’s ongoing blockade which she says has created a deepening humanitarian crisis. —Editor

EUROPEAN UNION

UK

The British government announced that it is considering building a new nuclear power station on the island of Anglesey, North Wales.

Green MP Caroline Lucas responded, “Taking a stake in this nuclear monstrosity would see taxpayers locked into the project, and paying out for a form of electricity generation that’s not fit for the future. We know that nuclear is vastly overpriced, and that we have no solution to the waste problems it presents, yet Ministers are ploughing ahead regardless.”

SWEDEN

Three of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla boats are Swedish. Jeannette Escanilla, MP for the Swedish Left Party and chair of the Swedish Ship to Gaza organisation, called on Sweden’s Government to demand that Israel allow the boats safe passage. The Government’s reply was that it had talked to the Israelis about protecting the boats while in international water. Escanilla said, “So it’s a very good answer, but I hope that they really [take] action when the boats are near Gaza.”

USA

Greens condemn the human rights violations continuing at the US Mexico border and spreading throughout America. “Despite the fact that the practice of removing children from their parents has supposedly ended, the Trump administration has failed to reunite thousands of children with their parents, and continues a message of fear and hate by conducting immigration raids throughout the US.”

Photo The Gaza flotilla yacht, Freedom

Green World

As migrants from North Africa keep crossing the Mediterranean, or drowning in the process, tension is arising within Europe over how to share responsibilty for accepting migrants. Italy has recently been rejecting migrants; France has even closed its ports. European Green Co-chair Monica Frassoni has said, “I am Italian and European, and I am not happy.” She is aware that many Italians, “have been convinced that our main problems are the invasion of migrants and the Euro, and not a slow economic recovery, bad salaries, inequality, corruption and inefficient administration.”

Frassoni notes that Spain used to be violently opposed to receiving migrants. “What changed? The government did. The difference is political, and it is political will that is needed to find a way out of this collective European hysteria.”

European Green Co-chair Reinhard Bütikofer is concerned about the European Commission’s new Europe Defence Fund report. “While the Commission intends to cut the budget for civil conflict prevention and peacekeeping by more than half, spending on arms research, arms procurement and military infrastructure will increase exponentially as of next year... What we are really seeing is a renewed push from the arms lobby to seek new funding… The regulation opens the road to spending EU budget money on cluster munitions and killer robots. Under no circumstances must European taxpayer’s money be used to bankroll these unethical weapons.”

Holland’s new Climate Law aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 by 95 per cent of 1990 levels. Dutch Greens leader Jesse Klaver said, “The Paris Agreement was groundbreaking for the world. The Dutch Climate Law is groundbreaking for the Netherlands. Today seven parties, with a wide range of political ideologies, agreed on a Dutch Climate Law, currently the most ambitious Climate Law in the world.”

President Trump pulled out of an international agreement aimed at stopping Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, adding that he would reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran immediately. European Green co-chairs Bütikofer and Frassoni, responded, “The people of Iran are already suffering from a deep economic crisis. It is also probable that the renunciation of the Iranian nuclear deal will embolden Iran’s more radical forces. It is imperative that European leaders remain committed to the Iranian deal and its implementation.”

Lois Griffiths takes a keen interest in world affairs and has compiled Green World for Te Awa for many years

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Ten years of wasted opportunity Dave Kennedy

Looking back

On 13 June 2006, Green MP, Nandor Tanczos, moved his

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Waste Minimisation Bill for its first reading. This bill developed into the Waste Minimisation Act that was passed in 2008. Ten years of wasted opportunities later, Green Minister Eugenie Sage is trying to use the act to deal with a massive waste problem we can no longer shift offshore. This edited version of Nandor’s speech shows how little of his vision has been adopted, and what finally could be done: “We live in a deluge of waste. About a tonne of waste per person goes to landfill every year in this country, and that is about as bad as it gets anywhere in the world. As a nation we are just stupid when it comes to waste. It is not just about the environmental impact, the toxic leachate that dribbles out of landfills, or the methane gas that escapes or flares into conflagration; it is about the waste of waste - the squandering of resources that landfills represent, and the resources wasted during production. It is estimated that about 90% of waste is generated pre-consumer, in resources wasted by our single-use mentality, and in the human resources wasted by ignoring the rich job opportunities in reuse and recycling.

It is a bit of an evolutionary intelligence test. Have we clicked on yet to the fundamental reality of life on earth - that we live on a finite planet with limited resources, and that our very existence depends on how we husband those resources? The very existence of waste indicates a failure of our understanding, because there is no waste in nature, only by-products that feed another part of the system. Humans must learn from the wisdom of life itself if we want to develop ways of living that are truly sustainable. This bill is an attempt to move us in that direction.

The bill would establish a national agency to set and monitor targets for waste reduction, approve and monitor extended producer-responsibility programmes, and administer the waste minimisation fund. It would coordinate public education, and provide advice to the Minister. The bill would give territorial authorities more power in respect of waste minimisation.

Operating singly or jointly as waste control authorities, territorial authorities would be empowered to enforce the provisions of the bill through by-law making and licensing provisions.

The bill would allow bans to be placed on the landfilling of materials that can be recovered. Let me be clear that any ban could be applied only where adequate recovery capacity already existed. The bill would create a landfill levy on every tonne of waste. That would disincentivise waste generation and provide funding for waste minimisation initiatives. The money would be split between local waste control authorities and the national waste minimisation authority.

The bill would require brand owners to take responsibility for the waste generated throughout the lifecycle of their products.

How they did so would be up to them, subject to the approval of the waste minimisation authority, but the idea would be to encourage waste reduction in the design of production and distribution systems. Bearing in mind the waste hierarchy, I say that reusing and recycling is great, but reducing waste has to be the priority.

All organisations under the bill would be required to adopt and implement waste minimisation plans. Those would be phased in over time, to allow plenty of time to develop those plans, and organisations would be assisted with finance and advice by the waste minimisation authority.

Lastly, public organisations would have to consider waste minimisation in their purchasing, and they would have to report on their waste generation each year. Essentially, the bill would provide an economic engine to drive waste minimisation, through the levy. It would provide a body to provide national coordination and leadership, and it would give a mechanism to reduce the production of waste in the first place through the extended producer-responsibility provisions.

Members probably know that local councils, the resource recovery sector, and local community groups have been calling for a number of those things over a number of years. Local councils have a statutory responsibility to manage waste, but they have very little power.

In principle, let us recognise that this is a sound approach to reducing our waste deluge. I look forward to engaging actively and widely with other political parties across this House, with the public, and with different sectorial groups, and I look forward to cooperating with all of those players to make this bill as effective, practicable, and achievable as possible.�

The full speech can be read here: https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/ document/48HansS_20060614_00001088/tanczos-nandorwaste-minimisation-solids-bill-first

Photo Nandor Tanczos, Green Party MP 1999-2008 Dave Kennedy is a member of the Southland/Clutha branch and the Strategic Policy Facilitation Group

Not for Ourselves Alone: Belonging in an Age of Loneliness

By Jenny Robin Jones Saddleback, 2018

Many of us will be aware of who Sue Bradford is, and at least some of what she has stood for. This biography offers a complex and nuanced picture of Sue in the context of family, friends and society, especially political society.

Sue’s life has shaped and been shaped by the times (and places) she has lived in, and Chamberlain has done an excellent job in evoking that interplay of time, place and personal action and narrative.

Here is the story of one of New Zealand’s movers and shakers. It’s a piece of important recent social history, and also a very human portrait of a daughter, wife, mother and friend, who happens to be formidably intelligent and utterly driven by the need to see social justice, often to the point of damage to herself.

Those who have been unsupportive of Sue’s public actions would understand her better if they knew her story. A story like hers can help to illumine the stories of others who are brave enough to oppose the status quo. It can be a call to arms.

Chamberlain’s research is impeccable and the writing is compelling (although she can use too many qualifiers). I found it hard to put down, even when it made me uncomfortable, as good writing should at times. Occasionally, I found myself arguing with Sue, as she felt very present in the work.

Like many people, I have had personal interaction with Sue so I was interested to read her story, having been a tiny part of it.

Her years with the Green Party are of course a part of the story, and we don’t appear to come out as well as we might like. This is one of the places I found myself arguing with her. As a party we have, and had, our faults and failings but personal interpretation comes into any human interaction. My opinion is that as a party we are not much into strong leaders who tell us what to do. Sue is most definitely a strong leader, hence, possibly, the parting of ways.

Sue is still very active, inspiring like-minded people with her Left think tank, Economic and Social Research Aotearoa (ESRA). From ESRA may yet spring forth the political party she has desired throughout.

Whatever Sue, the constant radical, does will surely count towards making our country a better place for those who have little say.

Recently I saw a terrifying account of thousands of Israelis calling for Palestinian genocide, complete with banners saying, “Kill them all!” It showed the most chilling throwback to the same kind of mob action that created the Holocaust – the very foundation of the new Israel.

What has this to do with Jenny Robin Jones’ new book about belonging? A lot. Belonging is a deep human need, and most of us spend much of our lives figuring out where we belong and with whom. And with whom we do not belong – or whom we reject as outsiders.

At what point does belonging become unthinking adherence to an idea? At what point does individualism mean that one takes full credit for one’s own achievements while ignoring the plight of others? How much influence can one person have over others and is this always bad? Or good?

Starting with what she knows best, her own experience, Jones takes us on a journey of exploration into what it means to be part of a family, a tribe, a group, a nation, and how the connections of humans with each other have changed the shape of societies.

She delves into history, chemistry, sociology, economics, individualism, mass movements, racism, biculturalism and colonialism. She uses academic works, poetry, fiction, anecdote and interview to create a tapestry of ideas and insight into the human psyche.

It’s a fascinating read, touching on many aspects of contemporary politics and providing deeper insights into the origins of some of the more egregious movements of our time.

If this sounds academic or difficult, be assured the writing is very good. There is no lengthy exposition, and the choice of quoted material is illuminating; it’s poetic rather than academic.

Thought-provoking and relevant.

Reviewed by Janine McVeagh

Reviewed by Janine McVeagh

Book reviews

Constant Radical: The Life and Times of Sue Bradford

By Jenny Chamberlain Fraser Books, 2017

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Mahia i runga i e rangimārie me te ngākau māhaki With a peaceful mind and respectful heart, we will always get the best results