Now that the dust is settling on the Turei resignation, it might be time to have a dispassionate look at why she had quit as leader of the Greens.
First up, Meteria didn’t resign to ‘protect her family’. If that had been a genuine concern, she wouldn’t have put them in the spotlight in the first place.
Secondly, she didn’t resign because of the shadow her admission of benefit fraud might cast over the Green’s election campaign. She left because she knew the damage had already been done.
Thirdly, James Shaw is likely to be equally responsible for the debacle. He hinted at that in an interview with Susie Ferguson on Friday saying, “I take responsibility for my part in that”. He was talking in the wider context of the campaign in general, but this was the first time he has linked himself to Turei’s downfall. It’s actually, as far as know, the only time the question of his role in this matter has been raised in the media.
Why is that important?
If Shaw signed off on Meteria’s confession, he should resign too. It was terrible politics, not because of the issue that was raised -poverty on the benefit- but because Turei was not fully transparent. As John Campbell said, she told a story, just not her story. Shaw should have done due diligence and clearly, he didn’t.
However, he won’t resign, because he’s the only hope the Green Party now has of getting in the high single figures.
The Greens are going to have to settle for losing 5 or 6 MP’s and spending the next three years gazing wistfully down the corridor that leads to the Cabinet room and wondering what it’s like in there.
I hate to be cruel, but the Green Party have shown that they do not yet have the chops to have earned a cabinet posting. Maybe in three more years?
I’ve been following the debate around the resignation in the left wing social media with considerable interest. Most of the analysis has been woeful. There has been an almost complete denial of the brutal political realities that the Greens should have known before trying to Corbynise themselves.
Here are some blunt facts:
The Greens are a middle class party, dependent entirely on the votes of petit bourgeois suburbanites.
Those voters may have a liberal conscience, but they are prone to tut tutting about their lessors. Key knew that. So did Muldoon.
Being caught out fibbing about her true and relatively comfortable circumstances means Meteria Turei has actually set back the cause of the poor in NZ. Her sense of entitlement has hurt the very people whose plight she wanted to champion.
And that’s the real shame of this mess.
We can live with less Green MP’s, but can we live with ourselves if poverty, homelessness and alienation are written off as topics for discussion now and post-election?
Te Reo Putake – Socialist, vegetarian, contrarian and footballer, Te Reo Putake was until recently the wittiest, most engaging and most infuriating writer at The Standard Blog where he was banned during their latest identity politics purge. TRP intends to continue battling for the battlers and kicking against the pricks in real life and here at the Daily Blog.
Yes Martyn,
Greens always have had a serious flaw that is why we left the party back in 2002 when we began our own “Environmental” group now as a solid NGO in the community.
The old time greens would listen to us as members then and treat us with respect for our input, as Jeannette Fizsimmons, Sue Kedgely, Rod Donald were very honest credible Green Party leaders and spokespersons of the party.
Now unfortunately we do not have the same quality of leaders so until we do we need to rely on those in the other opposition parties who do have the skills to survive the rough & tumble of Parliament and the offensively bad MSM.
Greens will be as before, the support for the other middle/left parties.
The Greens have always suffered from the schizophrenia in their party. Their activists are probably a majority Left of Labour, who would largely have been equally at home in Mana. Their voters are largely to the Right, or some mix of environmentalist, guilty-comfy, and aging Values voters.
They had also become a magnate for disaffected Labour Voters.
Put this pudding together and they become a Bell-wether of health on the Left. The better the current Greens did, the less healthy the Left in general.
They now have to take a punt on whether they can bring some of the missing 1.,000,000 in by doubling down on Metiria’s plight, or try to bring in some Blue-Greens by a dogged focus on the environment, and the old narrow Green mantra of “a plague on both your houses. Environment trumps all”.
I’m not so sure they can do both at the same time, though they can try, while running the risk of alienating both sides.
On the Left, we do rely on their finding the right answer to these questions, or we are entirely in the hands of Winston.
The Greens should have stopped at James Shaw’s AGM speech. Period.
I agree with some of this but not all. Yes they are a middle class party, and women in Remuera vote for them because they have organics on the radar. Jacinda Ardern’s becoming the leader of Labour assisted in pushing them down in the polls as did the two clowns who suddenly had a rush to their heads around the morality of it all, and the media who ignored other political things going on at that time and went to bring her down. I thought it was a brave and honest stand to say how her life was when on the DPB. No one can remember what they were doing 20 years ago, really, I mean voting in another electorate, having your mother flatting with you – goodness me. I really do believe that it was the Ardern effect and the two with the rush to the head that dropped them in the polls. I for one believe that they will be back up to 10% and I mourn the loss of Metiria who I have known for 17 years and I know has a very strong social conscience., I joined the party (16 years ago) BECAUSE it had these two parts to it: the environment and social justice, they go together. It has not and never should be just a ‘green’ party.
Metiria has categorically denied that she ever received any monetary assistance whislt on the DPB from the Hartley family.
Let’s look at the sequence of events – I think I have all the dates correct and if not they are in order.
1. 17 July Metiria talked about her circumstances
2. 28 July The Greens shot up in the polls
3. 31 July Jacinda Ardern became the leader of Labour
4. 4 August The media investigated and found that Metiria had flatted with her mother and that she voted in another electorate
5. 7 August Two MPs went public without giving 48 hours advice to the party
6. 9 August Someone from the Hartley family suggested that Metiria had been helped extensively
7. 9 August Greens plummet in the polls
8. 9 August Metiria resigns
Michal
Where did deny assistance from the Hartley’s? If we look to the AGM speech that started this off then we find that they are adknowleged:
https://www.greens.org.nz/news/speech/mending-safety-net-%E2%80%93-metiria-turei%E2%80%99s-speech-green-party-2017-agm
I agree with TRP much less than you – especially his contention that Shaw should resign. In fact, I don’t think that Turei should have resigned if she had made the admission at any time except during the runup to an election. The timing and her past being a distraction to the campaign seem to be sufficient reason. Shaw is not a distraction and is presently the face of (what is left of) caucus unity, so it makes no sense for him to stand down.
“Metiria has categorically denied that she ever received any monetary assistance whislt on the DPB from the Hartley”
https://youtu.be/rmvELokgC5E?t=8m22s
I agree with you. I vote for the Greens and in no way am I a middle class leafy suburb dweller.
I left Labour at the time of Lange and Rogernomics and have never gone back,as I have never ever been convinced they have returned to their core values.
Why is it so impossible to see that the economic system of neoliberalism with all its privatisation and free market rules, weakening of unions and regulations has led to both environmental depredation, inequality and poverty. You absolutely can’t tackle one without the other. Thats why I vote for the Greens, their environmental AND social justice policies
And I am rather outraged that the writer assumes(on the back of a vicious media campaign and unexamined allegations) that Metiria was riding on the pigs back while on the DPB
I am full of admiration for her that she spent no time languishing and did what she had to do to get off the DPB in double quick time, providing for her baby.
The actual “fraud” would be a piffling amount I am quite sure, more than made up for in taxes
The Greens are the only party that will seriously tackle climate change and poverty ,Labour has been weak and lily livered on those issues for decades now, and just watch them wriggle out of anti TPPA rhetoric, I’ve heard it already
My post was for Michal
Shaw and the majority of his colleagues fully supported Meteria’s position.
However, Jacinda says: “when you’re lawmakers, you can’t condone lawbreaking.”
Therefore, despite keeping the MOU and offering to give the Greens the first call, is Jacinda quietly signaling there will be no Cabinet position for Shaw and his merry team?
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