Origins

In May 1972 a meeting at Victoria University, Wellington, launched the Values Party, the world's first national Green party.  

The party contested the 1972 general election, with radical new policies such as zero economic growth and zero population growth and promoted reform of laws covering abortion, drugs and homosexuality.

These policies formed the world's first Green election manifesto 'Blueprint for New Zealand - An Alternative Future'.

Over the next three years Green policies were further debated, developed and expanded to create 'Beyond Tomorrow', the 1975 Values Party manifesto. This comprehensive statement of Green politics was widely distributed overseas and contributed to the development of Green parties elsewhere.   

The Values Party achieved 5.3% of the vote in 1975 which, under an MMP system, would have earned it seats in Parliament. Unfortunately under the First Past the Post constituency-based system Values was never able to concentrate its vote in one electorate and thus could not win even one seat.   

Despite a large and active membership, and a very professional election campaign in 1978, its vote dropped to just over 2% as voters attempted (unsuccessfully) to rid the country of conservative Prime Minister Rob Muldoon by voting Labour.     

In 1979 Values was also torn by internal debate about its political orientation with an Auckland-led environmentalist faction and a Christchurch-led socialist/unionist faction. Those strands are still there in the contemporary Green Party but they are in concert rather than opposition.

It was difficult inventing Green politics before the term 'Green' was even coined (which came in 1980 when the German Greens contested their first national level election). But Green politics saw successes in New Zealand during that time, as many Values Party members came from or were heavily involved in 'movement' politics - particularly the peace movement, the women's movement, and the environment movement.

Values made major contributions of people, money, time and effort to the anti-nuclear movement, in both its anti-war and anti-power branches, largely running the Campaign Half Million petition and the Campaign for a Non-nuclear Future. Both were successful and New Zealand is a nuclear free zone.  

Values members lead major environmental campaigns to stop excessive hydro-electric development and polluting, industrial growth. At the local level they were behind numerous campaigns for better public transport and cycleways, for recycling and reuse of waste, for urban heritage preservation and restoration, and for co-operative enterprises.

The Values Party also had the first female Deputy Leader of a New Zealand political party (Cathy Wilson, 1974) and the first female Leader (Margaret Crozier, 1979), and the first 'out' gay candidate (Robin Duff, 1978).

Between 1981 and 1989 the Values/Green Party existed largely in spirit rather than in practice. But in 1989 there was a revival of the Green impulse and Greens contested local body elections throughout New Zealand, with several successes.

The 1990s and the first Green Party campaign

In May 1990 the current Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand was formed from Values and the new Green groups, and contested the 1990 general election six months later, winning 7% of the total vote or nearly 9% in those seats where it stood candidates.

The Greens became foundation members of the five-party Alliance in 1991, linking with other parties that also wanted electoral reform and opposed the New Right direction of both National and Labour.

In 1992 Jeanette Fitzsimons was elected Deputy Leader of the Alliance and when the Greens decided to elect leaders in 1995, she was elected alongside Rod Donald. (The Party had previously had four speakers.)

The Greens contributed to Alliance policy development, by championing environmentally-sustainable economic development and helped the Alliance contest the 1993 and 1996 general elections. It was in 1996 that the first Green MPs - Jeanette Fitzsimons, Rod Donald, and Phillida Bunkle - took their seats in Parliament. By then there were also more than 20 Green representatives at local government level, including Dunedin Mayor Sukhi Turner.

In November 1997 the Green Party left the Alliance and stood a separate list in the 1999 election. The Green Co-Leaders honoured their pledge to remain members of the Alliance caucus until the House rose to begin campaigning in 1999, while Phillida Bunkle chose to leave the Greens and stay with the Alliance.

In 1998 the Greens began developing separate policy from the Alliance, and policy themes for the election campaign were safe food, nature conservation and strong communities. A two-goal strategy was also agreed. The first goal was for Jeanette Fitzsimons to win the seat of Coromandel. The second goal was to win more than 5% of the party vote, the threshold for representation in Parliament. In the event that the Party failed to reach 5%, a Green victory in Coromandel would at least ensure that there were some Greens in Parliament.

The 1999 election campaign started with nothing - no campaign chest, no staff, no material resources, and with the Greens polling at less than 1%. Its main resources were the Green Co-Leaders, MPs Rod Donald and Jeanette Fitzsimons, who worked enormously hard to raise the Green profile. Genetic engineering proved a good publicity platform with major news breaks on secret GE trials in NZ. The Green petition for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into GE gathered 93,000 signatures.

The Greens were further helped by National setting the election date as late as possible and with its intemperate attacks on Green candidates Jeanette Fitzsimons, Sue Bradford and Nandor Tanczos. The attacks raised the Party profile more effectively than the limited paid publicity the Greens could afford, and attracted late enrolments from young people and other previous non-voters.

Yet by the middle of 1999 the Greens had just started to consistently poll over 1% and were still way short of the necessary 5%. This made media coverage difficult. By the end of October 1999, however, the tide began to turn. Polls showed Jeanette could take Coromandel, and 5% was within sight.

On election night, November 27, neither goal was reached. An agonising ten-day wait followed, while special votes were counted. These votes tipped the balance and Jeanette won Coromandel (the first Green in the world to win a constituency seat in a-first-past-the-post race).

The Party vote finalised at 5.2%, and seven Green MPs (Jeanette Fitzsimons, Rod Donald, Ian Ewen-Street, Sue Bradford, Sue Kedgley, Nandor Tanczos and Keith Locke) took their seats in the new parliament.

2000: The Green Party enters Parliament

The Greens began to negotiate with the new Labour/Alliance coalition Government for a co-operation agreement that would ensure the Government Green support while providing the Greens with access to Government information and budget initiatives. An agreement was drafted, and discussed several times by Green and Labour representatives, but never signed. The Greens found out much later that the Alliance did not want to improve Green access to government information and/or influence on government, and so put the brakes on the agreement. Despite no formal agreement with the Government, the Greens began to make their mark in Parliament.

• The Party set a new milestone in New Zealand politics by negotiating a $15 million ‘green' package in the first Labour/Alliance budget. This included spending on organics, energy efficiency, legal aid and other assistance for environmental organisations, biosecurity, smoking cessation programmes as well as complementary health planning and natural resource accounts.

• The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Genetic Modification that the Greens had campaigned for was set up and began hearings in October 2000.

• The first Green act - the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act - was also passed. This act was first introduced as a member's bill by Jeanette in 1998, and gained majority support.

The Green Party's public profile also increased, with opinion polls in 2000 reaching 7%. From mid-year the Greens generally polled as the third most popular party, overtaking the Alliance and ACT.

By the end of the year the seven Green MPs had made an impact on Parliament out of proportion to their numbers, and on December 7 2000 the Party celebrated its first anniversary in the House (Green Day) in a way not possible on election night 1999.

Among other things, it was important to celebrate the difference the Greens made to parliamentary debate. As a matter of principle - and common decency - the Greens never make personal attacks or use abusive language in the House.

2001

Green MPs successfully negotiated $16.4 million of Green Budget initiatives in the 2001 Budget - funding projects ranging from a small grower's organic development programme, expanding organic gardens in primary schools and securing additional funding for EECA to develop the first national Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy, under the Act.

The Green MPs stuck by their charter principles and the Greens were the only party to vote against the Parliamentary resolution supporting the deployment of New Zealand SAS troops to Afghanistan.

Keith Locke forced Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff to back down from his attempts to secretly rush through draconian anti-terrorism legislation. The legislation was instead opened up to the democratic processes of public debate and submissions.  

The Party ran a strong campaign to ensure a GE-free future for New Zealand, including a major submission to the Royal Commission on GE, cross examining many other witnesses and speaking to well-attended public meetings around the country.

In another tactical victory, the Greens pushed the Government hard to save the rail system by negotiating to take back the tracks.

And Keith mounted a campaign against the intrusions of the new email snooping bill, encouraging people to make submissions.

2002

The Greens negotiated a $24 million funding package in the Budget covering an enhanced biosecurity awareness programme, $6 million for Environmental Education, the establishment of a Ministerial Advisory Group on Drug Education, a package for Auckland public transport, walking and cycling, and additional funds for environment centres.   The Greens also successfully negotiated $3.2 million for cleaning up and registering highly contaminated sites.

The Greens made changes to the Local Government Bill to keep water in public hands. Jeanette secured amendments to the HSNO (Hazardous Substances and New Organisms) Bill.

The Green amendment to the Local Government Rating Bill saved ratepayers unnecessary interest charges.

The Greens were the only Party to oppose the Terrorism Suppression Bill.

At the 2002 election more than 140,000 voters put nine Green MPs into Parliament;, Jeanette Fitzsimons, Rod Donald, Sue Bradford, Nandor Tanczos, Sue Kedgley, Ian Ewen-Street, Keith Locke, Metiria Turei and Mike Ward.

2003

The Green call for reason was answered when the Government bought back the nation's rail track.

Green MPs' votes were essential to ensure passage of the Maori Television Service Bill, enabling the establishment of Te Whakaata Maori on New Zealand airways.  

The Children's Food Awards - organised by Sue Kedgley and supported by groups such as Plunket and the Maori Women's Welfare League - successfully raised awareness of food issues.

New national standards for organic certification were based on two of Ian's Budget initiatives, providing funding for the development of national standards and a production strategy for the organics industry.

2004

Parliament passed the Clean Slate Bill, a Government adaptation of Nandor's 2001 member's bill.

The Greens supported the Hikoi at Parliament and consistently opposed the Foreshore and Seabed legislation that confiscated Maori land.

The Government started to clean up the Mapua toxic site, for which Mike Ward and other locals campaigned for years.

The Complementary Health Resource was launched within the Health Ministry website, www.newhealth.govt.nz/maccah.htm, funded by a Green Budget initiative and, later in the same year, Sue Kedgley called for complementary health practitioners to be integrated into the health system.

Jeanette obtained a Government commitment to review kahawai catch limits and to fund data collection on the state of the fishery and size of the recreational catch.

Green-Government co-operation on transport issues lead to action on vehicle emissions screening.

The Government adopted the Green position on public access, setting up an agency to negotiate access to waterways.

Sue Kedgley's successful campaign to get New Zealand garlic back on supermarket shelves gave consumers choice and saved the local industry from a flood of Chinese garlic.

2005

The Greens were the first to raise the peak oil issue in Parliament, proposing steps to cope with oil shortages, higher prices and higher international tension.

The Greens also focused on transport solutions for Auckland and Wellington, offering Aucklanders a way to fund an electric rail system and calling for a state-of-the-art public transport system through the Wellington region.

The Party also won a victory for human rights when the Government committed to the establishment of an Independent Prison Inspectorate.

The Greens supported the Muriwai community's condemnation of an offshore iron sand mining proposal.

 The Greens and the Government launched a jointly-developed first national walking and cycling strategy, and together wrote the Land Transport Management Act, with sustainability as a major goal.  

At the 2005 election 120,000 New Zealanders cast their party vote for the Greens returning six MPs to Parliament: Rod Donald, Jeanette Fitzsimons, Sue Bradford, Keith Locke, Sue Kedgley and Metiria Turei. While this was a loss of 3 MPs, all smaller parties were squeezed between Labour and National as the vote was close, and it was a smaller loss for the Greens than any of the other small parties.

However tragedy soon overshadowed the election result. On November 6, 2005 co-Leader Rod Donald died, his sudden passing caused by an inflammation of the heart muscle, a rare complication of campylobacter infection. Many feared the Party would not recover from the loss of Rod's inspiration, but the Greens' strength is collective. So while Rod's death was a sudden blow and his loss keenly felt, the Party itself continued to flourish. Nandor Tanzcos immediately took Rod's place as a Green MP while the male co-leadership of Party was to be decided by Green Party members, a vote that would take place in the next calendar year.

2006

During the 2006-8 term the Greens had a co-operation agreement with the Labour Government that saw Sue Bradford and Jeanette running Government programmes - the $11.5m Buy Kiwi Made programme first proposed by Rod Donald (steered by Sue), and the energy efficiency programme which included a solar water heating programme worth $15.5m, and in which Jeanette led the work of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority. The post-election agreement also saw the Greens secure got $3m for a school nutrition fund.

Green budget bids won $13m for the establishment of the Environmental Education Fund, and $2.2.m to help farmers go organic - the Organics Advisory Programme.

The Greens launched 'Turn Down the Heat', a set of major proposals to address climate change in New Zealand today.

A Green Party campaign saved a New Zealand icon - the Overlander rail service. And the Greens successfully campaigned against the Government weakening its stance on GE.

Sue Kedgely spearheaded a campaign to ‘Save the Wellington Trolley Buses' and won.

The Party elected Russel Norman as male co-leader at its June AGM.

Both Metiria Turei and Russel Norman tramped to the Happy Valley protest site as part of the Greens' ongoing support of the Save Happy Valley campaign.

2007

The Party highlighted illegal Pacific logging through a campaign that drew significant media coverage and made Woolworths end their import of unsustainable paper products.

The Commerce Commission upheld Sue Kedgley's complaint that Kiwi and Premier Bacon products were misleading consumers by implying their bacon was from New Zealand.

An Algerian refugee Ahmed Zaoui had his risk security certificate withdrawn, partly due to the unflagging political pressure maintained by Keith Locke for nearly five years.

Sue Bradford's Minimum Wage (New Entrants) Amendment Bill passed into law giving 16 and 17-year-old workers the same rate of pay as other employees.

The Buy Kiwi Made programme resulting from the 2005 Labour- Green Cooperation Agreement entered its most active phase with a $6.3 million media marketing campaign.

The Government's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy, overseen by Jeanette, was launched in October.

The Country of Origin Labelling of food campaign was launched and struck a chord around the country with 39,000 signatures gathered for Sue Kedgley's petition and presented at Parliament.

The Greens strongly opposed a proposal to add folate to all flour and the Minister of Health later announced that, unlike in Australia, organic bread was exempted from the new standard.

Greens won $8.8 million for wetland conservation in Budget 2007. Whangamarino Wetland in the Waikato, the Ashburton Lakes and the Upper Rangitata River in inland Canterbury, and the Waituna Lagoon and Awarua wetland complex in Southland were selected for new baseline funding of $2.2 million annually for four years.

The Greens also secured funding for a new Chief Advisor within the Ministry of Health. Supported by a policy analyst, the Advisor's role was to investigate ways to integrate complementary healthcare and conventional medicine, particularly for chronic condition management.

Sue Bradford's Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill passed into law, removing the legal loophole that allowed a ‘reasonable force' defence for the purposes of correction, a loophole that had allowed parents to legally beat their children.

Jeanette released a proposal to put a price on carbon - a central plank of the Party's long-anticipated Climate Change Policy framework paper, Kicking the Carbon Habit.

One of the Greens' key post-election negotiated programmes - the Organic Advisory Programme - was launched.    

Sue Bradford helped expose criminality in major casinos, resulting in a DIA investigation and opening up the possibility of major regulatory and legislative reform.

Sue Kedgley helped the Government introduce new Food & Nutrition Guidelines in Schools.

The sedition law was repealed after pressure from the Greens and other small parties.

Keith won an increase in overseas aid in the Government budget. He also drew attention to human rights issues in China and the curtailing of freedoms in New Zealand due to the desire for a Free Trade Agreement.

The Dalai Lama visited the Green Party Caucus.  

2008

The Greens secured almost $100 million dollars in the Budget for a range of projects including: Community Restoration Projects, the Community Organisation Grants Scheme, more funds for Environment Centres, a National Antibiotic Surveillance System, Environmental Education, Community Internship Programme, and the largest ever Green bid, $53 million to insulate all state houses.

The Party also secured $8 million over four years to support five major research projects on climate change and its effect on conservation land.

Co-leader Russel Norman joined the Green team in Parliament on July 1 2008, using his maiden speech to take a swipe at Government spending on roads.

Nandor Tanzcos, and then Russel Norman negotiated with the Government to finally bring into law the Waste Minimisation (Solids) Bill, including a levy to support recycling projects.

Sue Kedgley's member's bill, the Employment Relations (Flexible Working Hours) Amendment Bill became law.

The Green Party's Vote for Me billboards were widely feted by media commentators, the advertising industry and many voters.

The 2008 General Election results brought an extra three MPs Catherine Delahunty, Kevin Hague and Kennedy Graham into Parliament.

2009

Jeanette relinquished her co-leader's role and Aotearoa witnessed the emergence of a new female Maori political leader with the election of Metiria Turei. More about 2009 on our recent achievements page.