THE GREEN PARTY: REAL CHANGE OR LIMITED REFORMS?

 

While Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick has talked of overhauling a failed economic system that is eating up the planet, fellow co-leader Marama Davidson seems to have more limited ambitions that don't involve overturning the neoliberal applecart. 

SINCE BECOMING a co-leader of the Green Party, Chloe Swarbrick has been consistent in her view that our economic system is irretrievably broken and requires a major overhaul and not just a mere tinkering with the policy settings. Indeed, before she became co-leader, she had made her view quite clear. In 2022, she wrote:

'Do we want to keep tinkering, or do we want a brand new deal? Are we willing to reset the rules?... It's not going to happen overnight, and it's not going to be easily handed over, but history tells us we can, and the demands of the future require we must.'

We caught a glimpse of the Green Party's 'brand new deal'  in its alternative budget, published in May. While it can be debated whether this alternative budget goes far enough in its bid to spark fundamental change, it undeniably stands in opposition to the neoliberal status quo that has dominated for the past four decades.  It subsequently provoked a strong reaction from the defenders of that status quo.  Finance Minister Nicola Willis described the budget as a 'Soviet manifesto'  while Winston Peters, referred to the two Green co-leaders as 'Chloe Marx and Marama Engels'.

More noteworthy though was the muted response the Green's alternative budget received from Labour leader Chris Hipkins. He described the budget as  'unrealistic'  and supporting  'a huge spend up'. These comments do not suggest that Labour or the Green's are on the same page as far as economic policy is concerned. The Green Party faces the prospect of being a minor partner in a coalition government led by a Labour Party unwilling to do anything but 'manage' the neoliberal status quo.

But if Swarbrick continues to talk of transformatory change, that's not what her fellow co-leader Marama Davidson is saying. Davidson appears to have far more limited and conservative ambitions. According to her, the objective of the Green Party is to 'influence' the government's agenda. She says that the Green Party would be seeking to have the same kind of 'outsized influence'  that the Act Party and New Zealand First have within the present coalition government. 

But we've been down this road before. The Green Party sought to influence the agenda of the previous Ardern government but, in the end, proved to be little more than Labour's compliant lapdog. Widespread discontent with the Green Party's performance ultimately led to a challenge to the leadership of James Shaw from within the party rank and file. 

Branko Marcetic of Jacobin magazine observed of James Shaw:

'Giving the biggest polluters a free pass, lagging behind on emissions cuts, accruing a reputation as a climate dilettante on the world stage — all of this would be pretty damning for anyone with the title of minister for climate change. The fact that the minister is the co-leader of the Green Party is an added indictment.'

But Marama Davidson was loyal to James Shaw throughout his tenure as Green Party co-leader. She continues to claim that the Green's worked 'effectively' within the Ardern government. Not surprisingly she supported Shaw's fantastical notion of an environmentally-friendly or 'green capitalism'. It would be interesting to know if that remains Davidson's view today.

It's been argued more than once that the Green Party occupies a space on the left of the political spectrum. That might well be the theory but, in practice, the Green Party has done little more than prop up the centrism of the Labour Party. While Chloe Swarbrick might have concluded that time has run out for merely tinkering  with a failed economic system that is eating up the planet, the Green's could still end up making an election deal with a Labour Party still concerned with defending that very same failed economic system. 

Marama Davidson's claim that the Green Party will be seeking to 'influence' government policy should be taken as a clear warning that the Green Party could, once again, provide progressive cover for a right wing Labour Party. Davidson might have fond memories of her time in the Ardern government, but those of us seeking real change don't want more of that nonsense under a Chris Hipkins-led coalition government.