Fitzsimons: Greens will make threshold

Many platitudes apply to the Green Party right now. It’s not easy being green. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Down but not out ... depending on the poll.

Green Party founder Jeanette Fitzsimons has a surprising one: ‘‘The Greens always do best when they’ve got their backs against the wall.’’

It suggests an element of danger – you never know what they might do. And to be fair, no one saw former co-leader Metiria Turei’s admission of benefit fraud coming until it came, soaring the party to previously unscaled heights, then crashing them back down to their troubled Earth.

But behind Fitzsimons’ cliche of choice is experience – she’s been in a similar situation before and, like before, it’s the ability to bring in the new guard that’s just as much at stake as ‘‘changing the Government’’.

When Fitzsimons and her co-leader, the late Rod Donald, were splitting from the Alliance – forging their own path in anMMPenvironment – the party’s freshman firebrand, Chloe Swarbick, was 5 years old.

‘‘I think back to 1999 – Chloe wouldn’t remember it, she was too young – the Greens had left the Alliance and were standing on their own for the first time,’’ says Fitzsimons.

‘‘And we had this massive job of getting the public to understand that we were now the Greens. In May of election year, Rod Donald put out a cheeky press release saying ‘‘the Greens are celebrating getting into single figures’’.

‘‘We had just made 1 per cent in the polls. When we launched our campaign five weeks before election day, we were on 3.6, on election night we were on 4.9. And when the special votes came in, we were there with seven MPs. So, you know, don’t underestimate the Greens.’’

That’s one of many pearls of wisdom the stalwart can pass on.

Swarbrick’s knowledge of their actions and the foundations they laid for the party at the time may not be memories so much as moments in history to be respected later.

She and Fitzsimons are getting to know each other; a mutual admiration from afar has sparked a new friendship.

‘‘I think that the entire modern – if you can call it that – Green Party, stands on the shoulders of giants, which are Jeanette and Rod,’’ says Swarbrick, who is standing for the party in Maungakiekie.

‘‘They paved the way for theMMP environment in which the Greens operate today and really fought their way to open the overton window for Green issues, which 30 years later we’re seeing mainstream parties adopt.

‘‘That’s been massive for me and that’s how I got to where I amtoday.’’

Swarbrick is on the cusp of being in Parliament, as the Greens get close to the 5 per centMMPthreshold to remain. Two months ago, the 23-year-old was a shoo-in – placed high on the party list as its support had soared up to 15 per cent. Those were the days.

Though admittedly, Swarbrick doesn’t have as many days as Fitzsimons to look back on.

But Fitzsimons is confident Swarbrick will be something in the party and she says she is proud of the direction it is heading to. The issues when Fitzsimons and Donald were starting out were no different: climate change has not slowed any, and inequality has barely improved. What has changed is the resources, she adds.

‘‘I think of my time, what it would have been like with all these staff, and this budget and everything else. When Rod and I first distanced ourselves from the Alliance and said we were going to stand as Greens, we had half a media advisor and half a policy-cum-research advisor.’’

The comparative slickness of a political movement these days had certainly made things easier, but the money and resource was not why most decide to become a politician – certainly not a Green MP, says Swarbrick.

‘‘You don’t join the Green Party because you want to be a rockstar, you want to climb the ranks or you want to be prime minister.

‘‘You join the Green Party because you’ve done your research, you respect our history and out integrity and you want to do the mahi and you don’t care who takes credit for your ideas – but that’s why we need to be there.’’

The crashing low of Turei’s abrupt resignation, the party’s remaining leader James Shaw has described this campaign as the ‘‘fight of our lives’’.

Fitzsimons is no naive novice, she knows the stakes in an election campaign where oxygen is being sucked from nearly all parties but the big two. But she also knows how to read the game and would know little in the polls can be relied upon.

‘‘People are very, very quick to make dire predictions about the Greens not being there. But I have no doubt at all that we will make 5 per cent. Weird things happen in the last two weeks of an election campaign – I know, I’ve been through eight of them.’’

"You don't join the Green Party because you want to be a rock star."

Green Party candidate Chloe Swarbick