Source: Radio New Zealand
RNZ / Marika Khabazi
The Green Party is targeting “private interests and corporate greed” as it gears up for an election the co-leaders expect to be filled with vitriol and personal attacks.
Swarbrick – facing her first campaign as co-leader – is calling for fundamental economic change, and laid down a challenge to take Richardson’s place in a debate with Willis.
She and Marama Davidson are adamant those saying the party has lost sight of its environmental roots are bad-faith actors, and said climate will be one of three bottom lines the party would bring to negotiations if they are in a position to help form a government.
Push for economic restructuring
Speaking to RNZ in an end-of-year sitdown interview, the two co-leaders say the government spent more time talking about their Green Budget this year than its own.
Swarbrick said their Budget worked “phenomenally well” and the party is planning a repeat for 2026.
“The Greens are the ones asking this government and this country and this Parliament for a meaningful policy debate, which really actually prompts the question of why our Minister of Finance would prefer to entertain a debate with a ghost of this place, as opposed to the Green Party,” she said.
Willis challenged Taxpayers Union chair Richardson – who was National’s finance minister from 1990 to 1993 under Jim Bolger, and delivered the so-called “mother of all budgets” – to a debate this month.
“Anytime, anywhere,” Willis said, but after disagreements over time, venue and moderator Richardson appeared to torpedo the clash, refusing to be part of a “circus or sideshow”.
Swarbrick said the Greens were “very much clearly taking a stand against corporate greed over public good” and eager to take Richardson’s place in a future debate.
“Absolutely. I’ve been challenging her on the tiles for the last week,” she said.
Richardson had wanted to wait to debate Willis until after the December opening of the books.
When it arrived, she characterised it as “the worst in 30 years” and economists warned the government would need to make difficult choices with debt likely needing to rise to cater to an ageing workforce.
Swarbrick described this as a “doom loop” with high unemployment and low growth leading to a lower tax take and requiring the government to borrow more to pay for the same level of services. She argued for reshaping of the economy – taking on more government debt earlier to boost productivity by investing in industry.
“One of the examples that we’ve given is a central North Island wood processing space, which could then be used for sake of helping to decarbonise our electricity system, but also for helping to build more public housing.”
Staffing issues nothing ‘outside of the normal’
The Greens have had several staff resign over the past year, including their chief of staff Eliza Prestidge-Oldfield, director of communications Louis Day, and senior press secretary Johnny Blades.
Swarbrick denies that turnover is “anything other than outside of the normal”.
“We’re in the middle of the electoral cycle, everybody who has worked for us … we have good relationships with. We continue to support all of those who have decided that maybe they don’t want to be here right now.
“I think when you do that work in this fishbowl… it can feel like psychological warfare. This is a deeply inhuman institution to work within.”
Davidson said the party was “really, really stoked” former MP Kevin Hague was taking over as chief of staff.
“He had a particular expertise, skill and incredible level of leadership – but it’s been, what, a decade, and he’s grown that even more.”
Swarbrick said Hague had picked up a lot of what the party already had under way including the strategy of combating “corporate greed”.
“He’s running with it, and he’s helping us to continue to build the institution, the infrastructure that’s necessary to get our best election result ever.”
That’s despite the Greens dipping to just 7 percent in the recent 1News-Verian poll.
“We don’t pretend that it’s going to be an easy task to get people re-engaged in politics when this government has spent two years basically trying to actively disempower people and ignoring them when they choose to engage in the system.”
The ‘most toxic’ Parliamentary term
Davidson says it is difficult for people struggling with living costs to engage in democracy.
“That is intentional, that is designed to stop people from wanting to engage, to stop people from realising their own power.”
She said the party would be putting in effort to get voters registered and active, but was also expecting other parties would be more nasty and vitriolic as the election neared.
“We’re seeing it now, but that doesn’t have to be what we give attention to.”
She said the Greens would love to see all parties sign up to a commitment to not use personal attacks, or using technology and artificial intelligence in a way that “doesn’t tell the truth”.
Swarbrick says this has been “definitely the most toxic” of the three Parliamentary terms she had been an MP.
“And it is also the term in which it appears as though truth is completely fallen off the table. It is incredibly difficult to have meaningful public policy debates with people who refuse to accept that up is up and down is down, and gravity exists, and climate change is real.”
She said the party had been working on putting forward policy to show what they stand for, not just what they stand against, because “that is a far more powerful place for any individual human being to operate from then the politics of division”.
Working with Labour, Te Pāti Māori, or New Zealand First
Questioned about non-negotiables – and clearly anticipating questions about Labour’s tax policy – Davidson said that was “up to the people to decide” and “no politician or political party gets to say what is completely in and what is completely out”.
She said specific priorities would be decided closer to the election, but “always, there’s going to be upholding the wellbeing of people, tangata, the wellbeing of environment, taiao, and that that is only possible through upholding Te Tiriti”.
She named “climate, protecting nature, and ensuring that everyone is taken care of” as bottom lines for negotiations if the party were in a position to help form a government.
“The public good over corporate greed, it’s as simple as that,” Swarbrick says. “We’re not only interested in changing the government but… a government of change.”
Davidson said they hoped Te Pāti Māori could sort out their problems with leadership but “that’s absolutely for them to do”.
“There is time for them to get themselves together. The other thing is, again, it’s for the voters to decide the ultimate votes on the night of election.”
Davidson didn’t engage directly when asked about New Zealand First potentially positioning itself as kingmaker.
“If people want a government that properly talks about the issues, provides the solutions, pulls people together instead of a government that has a party that thrives on the politics of division and targeting vulnerable groups of people, then they really need to ensure that the Greens are strongest.
“I think if you want the real New Zealand First,” Swarbrick says, “you’ve got to party vote Green.”
Keeping up with the climate
While much of Swarbrick’s focus has been on economy and cost of living, she said the public should be paying more attention to climate change.
“The government is relying on climate policy being so complex and therefore potentially boring to people that they disengage from it, but this is a slow-moving car crash, the climate crisis is a cost of living disaster.”
Not only would it mean more severe and frequent extreme weather, she said, but insurance retreat leading to a worsening housing crisis, and less predictable food-growing.
Those saying the Greens have lost sight of the climate and environmental issues – including NZ First’s Winston Peters – are “bad-faith actors”, she said
“They know the questions that we have asked… they know the fight that we’ve put up against the fast track legislation, they know that Marama put out a very clear statement about our intention to revoke if the government chooses to move ahead with the most heinous… fast-track consents,” Swarbrick said.
“We have been pushing Nicola Willis to provide transparency about the cost liabilities and meeting our nationally determined contribution [to the Paris Agreement], which she continues to say that we’re committed to yet won’t show us the money.”
She said the Greens’ vision for the economy “caters to and upholds the wellbeing of both people and planet”, which did not need to be traded off against each other.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand