Greens go bush in search of support

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman checks out the water and its contents at Mike Moss' Waikato dairy farm in the Waitetuna Valley. Photo / Christine Cornege

Gumboots are needed on Russel Norman’s trail while Metiria Turei takes the city beat.

Green co-leader Russel Norman is posing in front of field of cows in Raglan, apparently on a mission to prove that the Greens and cows with all their pooing and trampling are not like cats and dogs at all.

He is out with dairy farmer Mike Moss, who is the Greens' poster farmer, if you like, when it comes to Norman's other mission which is to clean up the nation's waterways - or at least ensure others do it.

This has been Norman's primary mission for the past two elections. So for some of the Greens' election campaign, Norman has gone bush. Norman hasn't looked for dirty politics - he's looked for dirty streams.

In between hammering together the party's fiscal policy, Norman has been kayaking and tramping. He talks about phosphorus, nitrogen and e coli.

He collected two bottles of water from the Waihou River which he carries about as props. One was from the Blue Spring at the river's source and is crystal clear. The other is from the bottom end, and is opaque and brown. He takes a swig from the clear bottle, but not too much because he doesn't want to drink it all before it has served its purpose. The other remains firmly lidded.

Moss is the perfect poster farmer for the Greens. His farm is not organic, there is nothing hippy-dippy about him. He is a regular farmer and knows he's in the minority in the farming fraternity when it comes to voting Green.

The Greens' only farmer candidate John Hart is also there and clearly an optimist. He swears most of his fellow Wairarapa farmers are closet Green - "they just don't realise it".

Norman says the Greens aren't trying to penalise farmers by requiring them to fence all waterways by mid-2017. He sees it as "incentivising".

Moss backs him up. Asked about the contrast in his outlook to that of Federated Farmers, he says Federated Farmers tends to be a "reactive group, not proactive".

Moss takes Norman down to a little stream where he caught a couple of kokopu and koura in buckets earlier. Norman is delighted. "If you're as obsessed with native fresh water fish as I am, it's very exciting."

Fred Lichtwark is also excited by the fish, albeit for different reasons. "Each one of those lays eggs which end up a whitebait fritter!" There is a deathly silence at this pronouncement and it is suggested it might not be the right thing to say in present company. He is unrepentant.

Lichtwark runs the Whaingaroa Harbour Care, which grows plants and then plants them on farmland. It has got a lot of credit for cleaning Raglan Harbour. Importantly for Lichtwark, the cleaner water means better fishing. Like Moss, Lichtwark also is not a typical Green. He even jokes about tree huggers.

While those going on the campaign trail with Norman may be advised to bring gumboots, his co-leader Metiria Turei takes the city beat. Her weekend campaign included markets in South Auckland and a Child Poverty Action Group March up Queen St. The Herald caught up with Turei at a "whare party" in semi-rural West Auckland, organised by candidate Marama Davidson.

Turei is sitting on a step with her crochet and a green-iced cupcake, telling Waiora about the campaign. Waiora said she saw NZ First's billboard and "I thought it should have been the Greens". That billboard says "it's common sense", and having worked hard to shed the loopy Green image, Turei is delighted with this.

Back on the farm, someone asked what koura tasted like. Moss says, "Ask Fred - he seems to eat everything round here." Fred replies, "Oh, they're tasty!" He pauses. "I'll never get invited back to a Green Party thing, will I?"

A vote is a vote, and the Green Party is aiming for 15 per cent this year. They'll take it, even if they earned it from a hope their policies will increase the odds of a good whitebait fritter.