With general elections around the corner, Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick told Te Ao Māori News, the mahi this year was “a lot of that intellectual grunt work”.
“I mean, we’re aware that the really weighty plans that we have put on the table, that sketch out fully costed policies that sketch out fully costed policies.
“Probably the stuff that is only really going to be digested by some of the nerds.
“But, our work is building trust; that’s our game plan,” she said.
The recent 1News Verian poll has seen the Green Party take a four per cent hit, dropping them down to seven per cent. Despite the poll drop, the Green Party has seen an increase in Māori members.
“We have had an incredible, I guess, increase or surge of Māori members coming to the Greens, and helping us to hold true to being a Tiriti party,” said Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson.
“I’m excited about them helping us to shape and holding us to account on upholding Te Tiriti as our founding document, in our party.”
Unlike the Labour Party, which wants to snatch all the Māori seats next year amid the Te Pāti Māori turmoil, the Greens are yet to know who will be standing for them.
Both co-leaders have said they are confident they will remain in their party positions for the 2026 general elections, with Swarbrick saying, “We’re good”.
AIO [Ake, Iho, Ohorere]
The pair were asked for their highlight (Ake), low light (Iho), and surprise (Ohorere) in 2025.
Davidson’s highlight was announcing Greens would revoke “the most destructive mining permits and consents issued under the fast track (bill)”, while Swarbrick said it was making the Treasury commit to being transparent on the government’s climate liabilities.
Iho for Davidson was seeing the Treaty Principles Bill enter the house, and the Regulatory Standards and Fast Track Bill being pushed through.
Swarbrick’s low light was the “human suffering that we’ve seen increase at a massive scale, particularly in Auckland Central, in the city centre, with the increase in visible homelessness as a result of intentional decisions this government has made, there’s no escaping that”.
But a surprise for the Central Auckland MP was the Green Party bringing back their former caucus strategist, Kevin Hague, into their chief of staff position.
Davidson’s ohorere was the Samoan community in Manurewa.
“Well, last year, Te Anau passed his Western Samoa citizenship bill. This year I was delighted and surprised when him and I were invited to a big event. In Manurewa, South Auckland filled with generations of Samoan people who had benefited from his bill, and they wanted to honour him. And that was a delight,” Davidson told Te Ao Māori News.
Watch the video above for the full interview.
