Hart determined to fight green battle

LIFE GOES ON: Despite not getting a seat in Parliament, Wairarapa's green candidate John Hart - pictured on Election Night at King Street Live - is determined to fight for a "cleaner, smarter and fairer New Zealand."

John Hart is still fighting for a greener New Zealand despite not quite making it into Parliament.

Although the Green Party polled at around 14 per cent leading up the Saturday's election, and had goals of claiming 15 per cent of the party vote, the party fell well short with 10.1 per cent, with 13 MPs in Parliament.

At 17 on the Green Party list, Mr Hart watched his chances of landing Wairarapa List MP slipping away.

However, the Rangitumau sheep and beef farmer remains determined to effect "clean, green change" in the region.

"I was well out of contention," said Mr Hart, who also leads the Gigatown Masterton project.

"Life goes on - we're still on the farm, the animals are still eating the grass, the sun's still shining. But I will still be fighting for a cleaner, smarter and fairer New Zealand - I will be looking at ways to make clean change in Wairarapa until our next campaign."

Mr Hart, who announced his bid for the Wairarapa candidacy late last year, said Saturday night's result was disappointing for the Green Party - but he is pleased the party held its own amid a "crazy election campaign".

"We would have liked a larger number of people to vote for us, but we managed to maintain where we were last time," he said.

"The Green Party ran the best and most professional campaign we have ever run, in New Zealand and in Wairarapa.

"There were a lot of external factors going on, like the Dirty Politics stuff, so I'm very proud of what we put out there."

Mr Hart said he "really enjoyed" the campaign trail.

"I wasn't sure if I would enjoy all the public meetings, but I did.

"I am proud of our policies, so it was easy to talk about them.

"When I was out and about, I found a lot of people in Wairarapa support Green - regardless of the results on Saturday."

He isn't sure where the left went wrong this year - Labour had its worst defeat in modern history - but predicts there will be "a lot of post mortem".

He said he "feels for" Labour party candidate Kieran McAnulty, who lost the bid for Wairarapa MP to National's Alastair Scott by more than 6000 votes.