James Shaw resigns as Green Party co-leader
James Shaw has announced he will be stepping down as Green Party co-leader in March.
“It has been the privilege of my lifetime to serve as New Zealand’s Climate Change Minister for the last six years and as Green Party co-leader for nearly nine,” Shaw said in a statement on Tuesday.
“I’m very proud of what the Green Party has achieved over the last eight years.”
He said he would remain in Parliament to support his Members Bill, which would insert a new clause into the Bill of Rights Act stating that everyone has a right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. The bill was introduced to Parliament in December and is yet to have its first reading.
He said the Greens had become party of government, with ministers, for the first time and had made political history by increasing its support at the end of each of our two terms – “a feat no other government support partner had achieved”.
It was especially gratifying that the Zero Carbon Act which passed with unanimous support across Parliament had survived its first change of government, he said.
James Shaw has gone.
He was blamed by activists tricked by Matthew Hooton into committing a vegan Bay of Pigs leadership challenge for being too incremental and while he can hold up some legislative achievements that have borne fruit and lowered our emissions, the tiny steps he made here were never up to the challenge that catastrophic climate change will cause.
If you thought being carbon neutral by 2050 was the solution, then you are part of the problem.
As a former Greenwash consultant at Coke-Cola during his time at PricewaterhouseCoopers and HSCB, James desire to sit down with groups that hated him to pass incremental change was dealt its cruelest blow when the agricultural polluters tricked him and shut down any real emission reduction in their industry.
His decision to go into power with Labour when they didn’t need him was foolish. The Greens gained little from being in power with Jacinda in 2020 and could have by staying outside Labour attacked their incrementalism and earned 15% at the election, the fact they only went up 4 points while Labour lost 24 points highlights how alienating the Greens under James had became.
In 2019, the climate strikes brought 170,000 people to the streets.
What did they bring in 2022?
Thousands of students take part in school strike for climate: ‘We want a future on the planet’
…and…
Photos: Hundreds turn out for climate strikes across NZ
…hundreds AND thousands.
Not hundreds of thousands.
What the hell happened?
As the planet continues to melt in a heatwave that is crippling economies and triggering unprecedented catastrophic weather events, our climate crisis movement has gone backwards partly because of the trauma of Covid, but also partly because of the vicious idealogical knife fights that are now being waged privately inside the leadership movements of these protests where woke activists are cancelling protest movements for crimes against middle class dogma.
In 2021, the School Strike 4 Climate Auckland Organisation jaw droopingly cancelled themselves!
This level of extraordinary idealogical purity currently gutting protest movements as the Green Professional Management Class interests merge with Green middle class identitarians have muted and culled off real popular support for almost all protest.
There is of course a fundamental problem with relying on young people to solve the climate crisis on their own! If we can’t as adults find ways to change things, how on earth can kids?
Additionally, if we as adults can’t force back woke identitarians from ruining the public debate, how on earth can the kids resist them?
We went from 170 000 on the streets to hundreds and thousands.
It’s reminiscent of the woke coup inside the Pride parade where that went from 30 000 participants to a couple of thousand, and the woke called that a victory!
The Right look for recruits, the Left look for traitors and right now for middle class identitarians, everyone less mentally ill than them are privileged and everyone more mentally ill than them is toxic.
There ain’t much to recruit in that.
That has been the cultural dynamic inside the Greens since 2016 when secret Facebook chat session screenshots are still floating around the internet to highlight how vicious those collusion purges were. The coup attempt that saw Dr Kerekere pushed up the rankings was driven by a clique who considered Marama not woke enough!
The Greens under James were excellent at organising ‘Free-The-Nipple’ protests with militant cyclist vegan Mummy Bloggers, but were shit when it came to actually challenging the neoliberal hegemonic structure.
The Greens have all the offensive capacity of slow growing moss, but misgender someone, suggest female comedians aren’t funny or claim heteronormative sex might be pleasurable, and they’ll tie you to a chair, cut off your eyelids and then live stream your torture to your children.
Their pronouns are ‘I’ and ‘Me’.
Beyond woke virtue signals however, the Greens couldn’t get laid in a monkey brothel wearing banana costumes.
They’ve shot themselves so many time in the foot they don’t have a leg to stand on.
James was a decent man, probably too decent for NZ politics and it was abhorrent that he was attacked in public, but he and his Green Party strategists caused more problems than they ever solved.
Don’t weep for James, I’m sure he’ll get a great greenwashing consultancy somewhere, weep for the Planet that has no real environmental leadership in New Zealand at a time catastrophic climate change is here.
Meanwhile the planet burns.
I’ll look at who the possible leadership replacements for James could be on Monday.
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New Zealand could do with an environment-focused political party. Maybe he could. . .
Clean air and water legislation, as well as laws protecting trees, are the bedrock of any environmental unit. You have consistently called for the rolling back of all three.
Of course he can do this. The combination of left and centre-left politics needs to achieve this by challenging the far left.
What far left?
There is no mechanism to reconcile extremist policies with modernism. Traditionalism truly includes left and far-left tendencies. Just like Soviet Russia in 1990.
Here we go! Finally, some potentially good news.
RNZ.
Chlöe Swarbrick understood to be considering Green Party leadership bid
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/508029/chloe-swarbrick-understood-to-be-considering-green-party-leadership-bid
A brilliant young climate warrior who will unite farmers who will then partnership with Maori and their wairua one would hope.
hahahahaha
To be honest with his being white and male I am surprised he weathered the storm as long as he did.
James Brown 100%. What’s more, poor Shaw is a heterosexual male, one of the species viciously condemned by Marama the Horrible. Last normal white man to grace the Greens fled to a far and distant island in Otago Harbour, and he was one of their rare real environmentalists.
I don’t think it’s a mystery Martyn as to his replacement will be, the restructuring of their constitution last year or so paved the way for 2 women to co-lead.
Chloe will be unopposed (can’t see a male even raising his hand to be considered).
You get your wish, but as the saying goes…be careful what you wish for.
I’m right. What is a male?
Something you need for the night, Snow.
Hope your not offering yourself Millsy, don’t want Snow White to be vomiting with disgust now do we?
No…you stick to your Alphabet people Millsy, ensure the uglies all keep together.
She probably would want a pot bellied bald gammon like you.
A male is anyone who believes they identify as a male.
Im guessing you would identify as a total prick.
Did you just miss gender me?
So you are a Karen then?
You’re so transphobic
Not you?
hmm, then what is a woman?
Not Judith Collins.
Yeti. “ What is a woman? “ Any man in a frock who says, “ I am a woman” is a woman. It’s legal. Any frockless chappie too. Parliament passed it. Then there’s the others.
A woman is a person who can simultaneously possess a boy vigina while giving birth to a new born baby child 😀
A major mistake the Greens made was way back in 2009 when they did not vote for Sue Bradford–she is definitely class left, marxist actually, in her world view. But nonetheless, if Chloé becomes a new co–leader the Greens numbers and influence will continue to rise with new gens.
“Woke sellouts” has become a mantra on TDB, but it is time to look past that and come up with plans to do something about it. A fighting central Labour organisation would be good–this has always been difficult in a time of low union density and dominance by state sector unions. Perhaps now that thousands of public servants are going to be sacked, a militant approach will be better received. Mr Rennie the CTU economist seems a good find and makes clear public statements backed up by extensive research.
Bradford is actually a class Leftist agree; the future for the class Left is in united renter movements, not worker unions.
Time for a Mexican wave?
Bob the first So if they can get back Kerekere, whose ancestors’ sex lives were seemingly wrecked by evil colonialists, and her loyal Mexican sidekick, the loss of intelligent educated Dr Bradford will somehow be mitigated, and Davidson relegated to chewing pc chocolate while cursing those white men not disposed to wearing frocks and terrorising women in public parks? Sounds about right.
You really hate LGBT’s dont you Annie? What did they ever do to you? Sounds like Snow White isnt the only woman on here who needs a man for the night,
Hey you’re almost being witty again. Watch it.
Chloe will be next, done deal, which could make the Greens a 15-20% party. Bummer for Labour and they’ll be shitting themselves with fear. Only one small problem now – how to get rid of Davidson? She is probably the single reason the Greens don’t have wider appeal, which in this day and age is weird…a ‘green-save-the-planet’ party with limited appeal???? Oh yes, I forgot, this Green Party in NZ is not about saving the planet. If it were, it would do deal with either left or right to get their enviro policies realised. Our Green Party about equal sporting rights for dope-smoking transgender synchro swimmers.
Every single one of those votes going to Chloe will come from Labour, so no real change.
It will be interesting to see if she does lift the Greens (btw she will surely win) or will she drive away the moderate Greens who identify with Shaw more. She is already has huge exposure, making her leader is not going to change that, but it does open the door for TOP style environmental party.
Er, no… Chloe will get found out. She’s as batshit as the others just prettier
Wee HSBC Jimmy was/is (?) a Machiavellian confederate. He achieved nothing of note because that’s why he was there and it [all] ties in with agriculture, the free money that’s made from them and the political treachery that haunts them. Wee Jimmy? You do realise that our foul greenhouse gassing money printing cow-beasties were turbo charged to build 14 multi-billionaires, 3118 multi-millionaires with a nett wealth of $50 million each and four now foreign owned banks, ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac, standing over us to steal a reported $180.00 a second in nett profits 24/7/365. Our planet has become the victim of outrageous greed jimmy. Did you mention that during your tenure as leader of the weak and pathetic Green Party? Did you ever wonder what a cow is? Have you seen a sheep? Do you know what money looks like? Ever been to a ‘farm’ Jimmy? Heard of Land? Water? Air? In my opinion, Jimmy Shaw isn’t so much leaving the Green Party as he’s been decommissioned.
Chloe Swarbrick? You’re up. You have the nouse and now the opportunity to begin to change the entire Landscape of AO/NZ’s societies and our economy.
That strange sound you’ve just heard is the sound of the arse holes of 14 multi-billionaires, 3118 multi-millionaires with a nett wealth of $50 million each and the staff of the four foreign owned banks, ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac snapping shut with a squelch.
Here’s my dream. Chloe Swarbrick becomes the leader of The Green Party and instigates a royal commission of inquiry into and up every single corrupt molecule of our diseased politics and our pirated economy.
Shaw said on tvnz breakfast today that recycling basically achieves nothing towards reducing climate emmisions. So it’s all Green washing.
Take mark at that comment. Recycling is for the benefit of the planet, climate emissions is just a major part of our macro problems.
Recycling more micro, individual, along with our disastrous economic anti-system of importing stuff and presenting it as cheap, and turning consuming and buying into some noble category of Ec.101, which presents importing anything is better than making for ourselves and paying wages sufficient to buy local to meet our needs. Note under this ec.system: we haven’t managed to attach costs of recycling to goods ie a bottle collection charge etc.
I don’t think another female co-leader is a great idea for the GP, looking at the MP possibilities.
I don’t think Swarbrick is the right choice. She’s too much in step with Davidson, and too much infected with identity politics at the moment – maybe she’ll grow out of it with more experience and a wider reference group.
Genter is too centrist. Menedez-March is too much of the identity politics clique. They need a fresh perspective and strong left winger who understands structural oppression & inequalities.
Tuionon is an excellent option, or Efeso Collins. Maybe even Steve Abel. Failing that, maybe one of the lower ranked female MPs could turn out to have what it takes…?
Come, come, Chloe is a shoe in. I’ll be voting for her.
Yep, she doesnt hate those dirty trannies as much as you do Karol.
He is only 50-51. He could have stuck round for at least 10 more years. Seems that pollies bail out of parliament too early now. By today’s standards, Norman Kirk would have quit in 1966, Rowling in 1978, and Helen Clark in 1996. Just because you lose an election, doesnt mean you should bail out.
Millsy, he is part of a toxic female dominant party, the far left have taken it over (have for many years now), it’s why they struggle to gain any traction with increasing their voting %age.
Marama is decisive, all men are rapists rhetoric and the now infamous ‘all crime is perpetrated by white Cis men’ statements do not help the party one bit!
You long for the days when the Greens were full of anti-vax hippies.
Millsy I long for the day (it will happen) when they get below 5%, and out of parliament!
Then they can reassess what their core beliefs are, championing the 0.02% trans mob or actually fighting and advocating for environmental policy, as it stands they are the former and not the latter
As I said before clean air and water legislation is a basic building block of environmentalism, ie not letting farmers just put what they like in our rivers. Like you. You want farmers to choke our rivers with cowshit for the profit.
That the problem full stop. Why the f*ck should the environment be a fringe issue as you are implying. Every party should be considering the environment. Are we so f’ing stupid as to not understand the importance by now? Clearly wanker Winnie and dickhead Seymour are. Luxon kind of thinks it’s relevant in five years time.
Good chance now for the Greens to get a trans person as co-leader and that way they can keep their option open for having a male and female, while have two females at the same time. Getting rid of the white male from leadership is long overdue as it’s not really the Greens brand now. Possibly some male voters might leave the Greens and go Labour as a result of this shuffle but the gamble of new female members being attracted to a more feminist party could be a vote winner…or not…
Was never the biggest fan of his “pragmatic” approach but maybe that was the best path with the hand the Greens were delt the past two terms…
I thank him for his achievements and wish him well, but we need younger and more radical leadership to take on this government and hold Labour’s feet to the fire next term when they get back in power and I believe Chloe is the leader for that
the corner the greens are painting themselves into gets smaller by the day
Yuri has landed! With a brilliant analysis.
The further from the centre you get the further you are from power.
James understood this and played the long game.
The Greens are further from power without him.
James was a politician and had the respect of the house unlike the rest of the uncompromising activist Greens.
“Activist Greens” whereas if you are some stupid old git on tractor wanking on about communism, while you hold up traffic, you are just poor down trodden soul.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s Jack Tane, on the ladder.
What else do you expect from a banker?
Any normal man, white or otherwise, will be more accepted- and in a considerably better position to actually do good- in the Maori Party than the Greens.
The odds on favorite, Chloe He Him.