New political party on the horizon

Vernon Tava has inched closer to launching his ‘‘blue-green’’ political party, SustainableNZ.

Tava is a former Green Party member, who has long talked about the Greens’ need to move away from its Left-wing politics and into the political centre.

In February, Tava launched a website for the Sustainable New Zealand Party, and began soliciting memberships.

He needs 500 members to register as a party – a goal he says he will reach by the end of August.

Tava revealed he was on the verge of formally launching his party, in an interview on The AM Show. It’s often referred to as a ‘‘blue-green’’ or a ‘‘teal’’ party because it is seen as being to the right of the existing Green Party.

While Tava may be close to achieving the 500 members needed to formally register as a party, it still faces a major hurdle before it can get into Parliament.

All political parties must win a minimum of 5 per cent of the vote before being allowed to sit in the House, unless they win an electorate seat.

New parties have typically struggled to reach this threshold.

Tava said his party would benefit from being able to co-operate after an election with both Labour and National. This distinguishes the party from the Greens, which have ruled out doing a deal with National as long as Simon Bridges is leader.

Early speculation suggested there was little appetite among Green voters for a centrist party. An analysis of data from the 2017 New Zealand Election Study, a survey of more than 3000 eligible voters, found most people who voted Green identified themselves as being strongly Left-wing.

Less than 10 per cent of Green voters wanted the next Government to be led by National.

Tava dismissed these concerns, saying commentators had been too focused on the wayward Green vote, rather than looking at the possibilities that existed in the political centre.

‘‘It’s a fundamental flaw in analysis to suggest the only Green Party that can survive is a party that attracts existing Green voters.’’