John Armstrong: Return of Tanczos Greens' first slip

Sorry, Nandor, but your return to Parliament is a big leap backwards for the Greens. Filling the vacancy created by Rod Donald's untimely death with the gentle-minded Rastafarian father-of-one may be a much-needed source of comfort for a close-knit caucus in the depths of major crisis.

But it is ominous for the Greens that the first decision the party has made since Donald's passing is so obviously the wrong one.

It is a sign of a party turning inwards at the very time it needs to keep reaching outwards.

For all Nandor Tanczos' qualities, his loss of his parliamentary seat in September was a blessing in disguise for the Greens, even though they would never admit it.

Cannabis law reform had become an albatross around the party's neck. Although the exit of Tanczos with the invisible Mike Ward meant the caucus was decidedly smaller, it was a much tighter, more focused unit.

Bringing back Tanczos does nothing to smooth succession questions surrounding the party's leadership, already deemed in need of attention before Donald's death.

Jeanette Fitzsimons had been expected to retire at the next election, with Sue Bradford or possibly Metiria Turei taking over as female co-leader beforehand.

Fitzsimons will now have to stay on. Otherwise, the party will be fighting the election with two new co-leaders.

The problem is neither Tanczos nor the remaining male in the caucus, Keith Locke, are contenders for male co-leader.

Locke is a quiet person who prefers to let his ideas and achievements speak for themselves. He is now in his 60s and is also expected to retire in 2008.

Tanczos is seen as far too polarising. He would lose as many votes as he would attract, probably more. His stance on cannabis law reform makes him an easy target and would divert attention from policies the party is keener on promoting.

The party was always going to have to look outside the caucus for Donald's replacement, and is the reason why Tanczos should have been persuaded to forego his right of re-entry in favour of new talent further down the list.

But reinstating Tanczos has removed the option of fast-tracking Russel Norman, the obvious front-runner for male co-leader, into the parliamentary team.

The Australian-born Norman, who has a doctorate in politics, has been a party member since crossing the Tasman about a decade ago. He is thought to have already had Fitzsimons' backing to take over when Donald eventually retired.

There is some resistance within the party to Norman, possibly because he was in charge of its disappointing election campaign. But he presents the kind of unthreatening, contemporary image the Greens desperately need, especially to complement Fitzsimons' fundamentalist environmentalism.

A party leader really needs to be in Parliament to make any sort of impact. It is going to be difficult enough for Donald's successor to fill his shoes.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the eulogising of Donald was that it did not subside in the days after his death. If anything, it intensified.

The wave of sympathy has helped to carry the Greens through what for them was always going to be a very public grieving process. That is the Green way. And the party will feel all the better for it.

Even so, Fitzsimons has carried a heavy burden. Perhaps feeling the loss keener than anyone, she has had to hold things together amid the emotional tumult.

Her incredible stoicism has carried the party through the immediate crisis. But, at times, her shoulders have seemed to sag as the true extent of the loss becomes apparent.

Donald's death does not just create a huge vacuum in a small caucus. The premature exit of the party's chief tactician coincides with the Greens having to make some tough decisions, some of which have been avoided for far too long.

Fitzsimons can carry the load into the summer break, but it is vital someone in the caucus then step forward to fill some of the gap left by Donald - especially if the new co-leader is not elected for another six months or so, as Fitzsimons is indicating.

That responsibility will likely fall to Bradford who, more than her colleagues, is seen as having more of the right kind of mix of idealism, pragmatism and drive that Donald possessed. But she would be more uncompromising than Donald.

She has already shown her contempt for the new Government's reliance on New Zealand First and United Future and the block they place on Labour implementing centre-left policies.

The bitterness many Greens now feel towards Labour, whom they believe shafted their party in post-election negotiations for Labour's own convenience, will inevitably provoke intense debate about the Greens' relationship with its supposed ally.

Having overcome earlier reluctance to enter coalition - something which was largely at Donald's prodding - the leadership may come under pressure to distance the party from Labour in 2008.

Bradford will be a pivotal figure in those discussions and avoiding any tactical rethink which, like the GM-inspired refusal to back Labour on confidence motions, ends up working against the party's interests.

Other matters require urgent sorting out. The centre-left suffered from the failure of the Greens and the Maori Party to form a bloc after the election that would have made it harder for Helen Clark to justify wrapping up a deal with two centrist parties.

Then there is branding. Is the party's environmental thrust being sacrificed by too much emphasis on policies promoting social justice?

Most pressing of all, three years on from the anti-GM heyday, the party is still looking for something else with similar resonance to lure voters.

Fitzsimons put her trust in "peak oil". That had no impact because everyone agreed oil shortages were not a good thing, but the Greens could not offer any quick-fix solution. It was a tactical mistake. But too many Green MPs pushed too many barrows in the last term with little electoral spin-off.

The worry now is that without the discipline and focus Donald brought to party discussions, MPs will work even less as a team, and caucus meetings will degenerate into what one party worker calls "interminable navel-gazing".

Unfortunately for the Greens, Tanczos' return to Parliament shows those MPs are still thinking with their hearts, not with their heads.