Event: Green awakening meant taking a stand

Dina and Niva Kay, Harry Parke, Jeanette Fitzsimons, Yotam and Lily Kay at Pakaraka Farm. Photo/supplied

When Jeanette Fitzsimons was offered a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2010, she thought "long and hard" before accepting it.

Because it was ostensibly coming from the Queen? "No, it was because it was coming from that Government. In the end I accepted because I thought it would make it a little harder for them to arrest me."

That she hasn't been arrested since then is not for want of trying. In 2013 Fitzsimons was aboard the 3.5m Greenpeace yacht shadowing a 229m deep-sea oil-drilling ship, expecting to be arrested by the navy under the Anadarko Amendment, legislation aimed at keeping protesters away from oil operations in the Taranaki Basin.

"They talked about charging me and Bunny McDiarmid [of Greenpeace] but it came to nothing. I think they didn't want to give us the chance to speak in court."

Earlier this year she chained herself to the gates of Fonterra's Clandeboye dairy factory in south Canterbury, the group also blocking the drive with woodchips. "The woodchips were to say, 'you could be using this' and drawing attention to Fonterra being this country's second-biggest user of coal." The giant dairy co-operative declined to call police.

Fitzsimons admits it's a long way from her "traditional" upbringing in Mosgiel and Waiuku, although the 72-year-old activist recalls that her father, an English teacher, was always "on the side of the underdog".

"My parents brought me up to believe I could be anything if I worked hard - a great gift to give a child."

Schooling at Epsom Girls' Grammar was "liberating", thanks to the female staff. "These were women with careers and no one tried to say girls couldn't do things. Excellence was valued in every field."

In 1968 Fitzsimons moved to Geneva where her then-husband had a job with the World Council of Churches. "What we didn't know was that I wasn't allowed to work. I went to lectures at the Institute of International Affairs, played violin in an orchestra that went to the Congo, read a lot and had both my sons there.

"My green awakening came in 1972 when a friend sent me a little book called The Consumer's Guide to the Protection of the Environment. It opened my eyes to the fact that everything we do impacts on the planet."

She joined Friends of the Earth and the Environmental Defence Society and at around the same time her father sent newspaper clippings about the Values Party, formed to contest the 1972 election.

My parents brought me up to believe I could be anything if I worked hard - a great gift to give a child.

Jeanette Fitzsimons

Fitzsimons and her family returned to New Zealand in 1974 and about a year later she joined the Values Party, standing in the 1978 and 1981 elections.

"My parents both voted National until I stood for Values - I think they did it out of loyalty to me, but I appreciated it."

Fitzsimons taught in the Department of Planning at Auckland University for 12 years from 1980 but the call of politics was strong.

Although she was unsuccessful in the 1993 election, she became co-leader, with Rod Donald, of the Greens in 1995, a position she held for 13 years. Fitzsimons finally entered Parliament in 1996, the first MMP election, on the Green list, before winning the Coromandel seat in 1999.

Fitzsimons says her grandchildren, now aged 9 and 14 and who live in Wellington, have taken her political involvement for granted.

"They think standing up on stage and making a speech is what nanas do and for a long time the younger one thought Nana lived in the car radio because that's where he would hear my voice."

In 1991 she and husband Harry Parke bought 87ha near Thames which they slowly turned into an environmentally-friendly hideaway. "We didn't set out to be off the grid,"

Fitzsimons laughs, "but the cost of bringing electricity to the house was so high we decided to use other power."

Jeanette Fitzsimons

As well as solar power, the farm has micro-hydro schemes and deals with its own sewage and wastewater.

In 2014 they sold a half-share of Pakaraka Farm to Yotam and Niva Kay, an arrangement that will pass to descendants of both families. Trained as permaculture teachers, the Kays have an organic market garden and regularly run classes on the property.

"Practically, it means that when the water supply goes off there's someone to go up the very steep, awkward track to fix it for us," Fitzsimons says, "but, more importantly, there are three generations living on the land and that's how we like it."

the details
Jeanette Fitzsimons appears in Our Place to Stand (October 28) and Paved with Good Intentions (October 29). Tickets from Baycourt or Ticketek. TECT cardholder discounts apply until October 6 (Baycourt only). taurangafestival.co.nz