Internal spat may overshadow Greens conference

Green co-leaders Russel Norman and Metiria Turei. Photo / Northern Advocate

The Green Party meets for its annual conference this weekend needing to build up the profile of its fresh-faced leaders, while at the same time faced with a spat over its internal democracy which spilled into the public domain this week.

While Russel Norman has been co-leader since Rod Donald's death in 2006, he has only been an MP for two years, while Metiria Turei, who
replaced the well-regarded Jeanette Fitzsimons, has been co-leader for exactly 12 months.

The Greens continue to poll reasonably well at around the 8 per cent mark, the healthiest level of all of the minor parties. But given the number of serious environmental issues in the headlines at present - including whaling, the prospect of mining on the conservation estate and oil exploration off East Cape, along with the ongoing Gulf of Mexico oil spill catastrophe - political commentators suggest they should be doing better.

This weekend in Christchurch, Dr Norman and Ms Turei will have the chance to show members and the public how they plan to turn concerns about the environment and the Greens' other major area of activity - social justice - into political capital.

In her address to the conference tomorrow, Ms Turei will expand on her party's policies around social inequality, which were repackaged under the "Mind the Gap" banner just before the Budget last month.

Dr Norman will speak on the Greens' challenge to communicate the party's "No environment, No economy" message.

He told the Herald the message is about protecting New
Zealand's "clean and green" image in order to maintain the premium
our exports command as a result. He also believes New Zealand should put more resources into developing high-technology but clean, low impact industries.

The party also has some significant housekeeping to complete if it wants to present a unified face to voters.

Members who the Herald understands were unhappy with the way the Greens' party list was determined before the last election took the unusual step of airing their concerns in public this week with big newspaper advertisements.

The "concerned members and supporters" are seeking support for a remit changing the party's constitution to set out the process by which
candidates are selected and ranked.

At present, the constitution says the process is ultimately at the discretion of the party executive. In practice, however, it has largely
followed guidelines set out in other party documents. These include
criteria by which a list of candidates produced by a members' vote is
"tweaked" to meet requirements for ethic, gender and age group balance.

Party members who support the change say they simply want that process formalised.

"It enshrines in the constitution what we all thought the actual rules were," said Mike Ward, a member who was "tweaked" lower on the Greens'
party list by the executive in 2008 to allow Dr Norman to become an MP.

Mr Ward didn't know who had proposed the remit and said the airing
of the issue in public was "unprecedented".

"It's an interesting strategy. I tend to keep my concerns within the party," said Mr Ward.

Other members said there was some tension between supporters of the changes and the party's leadership over the degree of final veto wielded by the executive.

The Herald understands the remit has undergone a number of revisions in order to strike a balance between the wishes of the members supporting it and the executive, which will likely retain some ultimate control as is common practice with other political parties.

That the somewhat technical issue has become public is probably an unwelcome distraction for the party which has prided itself on is democratic candidate selection process.

While Dr Norman told the Herald he hadn't taken a position on the proposal, he believed the present system "seems to work pretty well".

"Should it be enshrined in the constitution? Well, if it's not broken we should probably leave it alone, so I'd probably tend towards keeping it to the status quo."

Co-leader Ms Turei was unwilling to discuss the remit ahead of the conference.