Nine Green MPs were elected at the 2008 election thanks to the support of more than 150,000 New Zealanders, and those MPs got to work in 2009.

In February, Keith Locke forced New Zealand's spy agency to have a re-think after revealing that he'd been spied on as a sitting MP. Thanks to Keith's challenge, the SIS has changed its tactics.

We also signed up to a working relationship with National to work on a few ideas where the two political parties have common ground. The biggest success so far has been a $323 million home insulation fund to make Kiwi homes warmer and drier. The Heat Smart programme is off to a fast start and, over the next four years, about 180,000 homes will be better insulated or heated as a result.

The home insulation program is a great example of Green New Deal-type investment that tackles economic and environmental problems at the same time. The Greens have developed a series of similarly bright ideas, offered them to the Government and shared them with hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders in 2009.

Another area of common ground is the New Zealand Cycleway where Kevin Hague has added his expertise to the Prime Minister's tourism project.

In mid-year, the Green Party elected Metiria Turei as co-leader alongside Russel Norman - the first New Zealand party to boast Gen X leadership, putting the Green leadership a generation ahead of New Zealand's other political parties.

Metiria's first action as co-leader was to make MPs expenses public, a move that forced the other parties to follow suit and has given New Zealanders a clearer picture of what their politicians are spending and why.

A tenacious defence of New Zealand's conservation laws saw Russel Norman team up with community and environmental groups to push back some of the Government's most radical changes to the Resource Management Act. It means Kiwis still have a say on the future of New Zealand's water, land and wildlife.

Russel has also championed tax and banking reform throughout the year, increasing the pressure on Government to take action.

For Catherine Delahunty, the battle to give New Zealanders information about toxic sites took a big step forward with new rules that require councils to make public what they know about potential contamination around our homes and neighbourhoods, farms and parks. The campaign has been going for years and Catherine continues to work on plans for clean up as well as giving the public the right to know.

Jeanette Fitzsimons presented a plan for how New Zealand can make big cuts to its greenhouse gas emissions at low cost. The report, called Getting There, has helped change the debate in New Zealand. Before Jeanette's report the Government said it was impossible to lower emissions, but afterwards the conversation shifted to why it won't take the action most New Zealanders want.

Ties to the union movement also strengthened this year with a formal agreement between the Green Party and the Service and Food Workers Union.

The Green Party is shining light on the Government's murky plans to mine our national parks and conservation estate for oil, gas and minerals. We say it love it and protect it, but don't mine it. And while the Government has tried to downplay its plans, the Green Party revealed that they want to look for oil in Fiordland National Park, a World Heritage site!

That's some of what the Green Party did in 2009 and we aim to be even more effective in 2010. You can stay in touch with our work here.