OPINION This is a transcript of Audrey Young’s politics newsletter. To sign up for this newsletter or Friday’s subscriber-only Premium Politics Briefing,.
James Shaw facing Green co-leadership challenge from Dunedin activist
The Green Party co-leader James Shaw is being challenged for his job by an activist in Dunedin, who says the party has become too timid on the great challenges facing humanity. Alex Braae reports.
Dunedin man James Cockle is throwing down a challenge to Greens co-leader James Shaw, saying he’s running because it’s time “for the Greens to become a major party”, and this isn’t happening under Shaw’s co-leadership.
The Green Party re-elects its co-leaders at the AGM, which is set to take place in the coming weeks. Normally the election process is little more than a formality.
OPINION: Amid the carnage of October’s election, and the near-total collapse of the National Party, one death went unnoticed: that of the idea of a meaningful Blue-Green voter base. For years now, very sensible commentators have been telling us about a vast bloc of economically conservative but environmentally conscious voters, just waiting to be tapped. If only, they say, a dynamic leader could be found for a new, centrist green party. If only the Greens would abandon this social justice nonsense and broaden their appeal across the spectrum. Then environmentalists would have real leverage, rather than being consigned to the margins.