Brethren leaflets may have cost Greens a seat

Rod Donald

Greens co-leader Rod Donald believes the $500,000 Exclusive Brethren pamphlet campaign could have cost the party a seat.

Although relieved to be over the 5 per cent threshold on the election night count - but only just at 5.07 per cent - he is disappointed the party did not better its 2002 performance of 7 per cent, which gained it nine MPs.

This time the result on the night delivered only six - with MPs Nandor Tanczos and Mike Ward missing out. But Mr Tanczos could be back once special votes are counted.

Mr Donald said he knew the Brethren campaign - which started with an anti-Green pamphlet that talked about "The Green Delusion" - had hurt them.

"For every person who said to me, 'I'm now voting for you because of their propaganda', I'm sure there were a hundred who just shied away because of it.

"I would say it has cost us a seat."

The Greens have filed a complaint with the Chief Electoral Office, but are yet to hear back on the outcome. A spokeswoman for the office said she could not say when its investigation would be completed.

The Greens are likely to lodge a further complaint after another Brethren pamphlet drop in Christchurch just hours before polling day.

Although the Greens have no conclusive proof the second version of the Green Delusion leaflet had been delivered after midnight on Friday - which would make it an offence under the Electoral Act - Mr Donald said the move was "opportunistic".

He said the party could have done many things in the campaign better, and those issues would be analysed later. For example the billboards were too complicated.

He said losing two MPs "hurt".

"We did put in the work on the ground and we put the work into the policy, but I'm afraid this wasn't a policy-focused election."

The media - both electronic and print - had not given the Greens a fair share of campaign coverage and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy when the media became fixated on it being a two-horse race.

"There was far too much focus on trivia - like MPs' private parts - and not enough on policies and, from our point of view, the state of the planet," Mr Donald said.
Another problem for the Greens appears to have been the failure of so many to heed the message about the importance of the party vote.

Green candidates picked up thousands of electorate votes, indicating that the message the party had hammered had not got through.

Mr Donald and co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons for example, got 8822 electorate votes in the seats they were standing in, Coromandel and Banks Peninsula - votes they didn't want.

In addition, Mr Donald said many Green supporters felt they had to give their party vote to Labour to keep National out.

"We tried to say over and over again the best way to stop Brash is to vote Green. The only way to stop [Winston] Peters having the balance of power is to vote Green."

Mr Tanczos said he was relaxed about the outcome, and would spend the time between now and the final result with his family, whom he has seen little of during the campaign.

- additional reporting: Jarrod Booker and Julie Middleton