The vote will be seen as a boost for James Shaw, the former Green Party co-leader who was fired from his job on Saturday after failing to secure a 75 percent majority to extend his co-leadership for another year. to extend. Shaw will likely challenge the lead again.
The Greens will consider in the coming week whether to give their support behind Shaw or if it is time to hand over the co-leadership to someone new, possibly Auckland Central MP Chlöe Swarbrick – Swarbrick has so far not answered requests to clarify whether she is not contesting the leadership.
Sunday’s vote was about the amount of time the party’s deputies were given to approve or vote out a government deal after the election.
Currently, 150 Green Party deputies, representing members of the Green Party, must vote for any agreement the party signs with another party (probably Labour) when it comes into government.
The catch is that these deals are often top-secret and party representatives often don’t get much time to read them. In 2017, delegates were not given the full board agreement before voting, and in 2020 they were only given about 15 minutes to see the agreement before voting.
This order would have amended the party’s constitution to give delegates a minimum of 10 days to review an agreement before voting on it.
The failure of the vote is an implicit vote of confidence in Shaw, who opposed it.
However, the vote still managed to win the support of a majority of the Green deputies — it failed only because it failed to secure the 75 percent majority needed to pass.
It was supported by 64 deputies, with 33 against and seven abstentions.
Instead, a compromise working group will be established, which will propose tasks for a future SGM [Special General Meeting] or AGM on better ways to involve members in post-election negotiations and to find the best way to get members involved in a decision.
This means that some change is likely and that change could come at next year’s AGM, which would fall just before the likely 2023 general election date.
Shaw had argued that it would make entering into government agreements much more difficult and weaken the party’s hand in negotiations with its likely government partner, Labour.
The fact that this vote has had its way bodes well for Shaw as he considers going yet another direction with the co-leadership.
On Saturday, the party voted to reopen nominations in its role after Shaw gained the support of only 75 deputies on a ballot – 32 voted to reopen nominations, meaning Shaw’s leadership was not confirmed with a required 75 percent majority.
This means Shaw has been fired and has a week to decide whether to reapply. Other party members also have a week to decide whether to challenge the job.
Shaw said he was “inclined” to put his name forward again, suggesting he thought he had been impeached because the views of the party’s voting delegates had diverged from those of the party members.
“It is not immediately clear to what extent the delegates who vote in this way represent the broader membership of their departments,” Shaw said on Saturday.
He was also concerned that only 107 of the 150 voting delegates had turned up to vote on Saturday.
“Significantly fewer votes were cast here,” Shaw said, comparing the vote to previous years.
– by Thomas Coughlan, senior political reporter, The New Zealand Herald