So I was talking at the back of class like usual with my friends about our latest D&D adventures
when I noticed that the class had gone quiet and the first words I heard my teacher say were
“countries go to war over things like this."
It was the morning after the French secret service had bombed and sunk the Rainbow Warrior
in Auckland Harbour and it set me on a path that has lead me here today.
I first joined the Green party when I was 16 in 1990.
In 1993 I was the campaign manager for the Victoria University Students' Association
and we ran a nationwide campaign to mobilize students to vote for MMP.
What I learned on that campaign, and from people like Rod Donald,
is that we can win, we can change the system,
even when we are faced with powerful, entrenched adversaries.
But we need leaders who can reach out to the broadest possible coalition of voters.
You can see where I’m going with this right?
I spent most of the next 20 years working overseas. I have a Masters degree in sustainable business.
I worked with villagers in the Himalayas, with subsistence farmers in Brazil,
I also worked with investment bankers in Hong Kong, and some kind of dodgy types in Moscow.
Bringing together groups of people with apparently nothing in common
to solve seemingly intractable problems.
It was good training, to be the Green party co-leader.
In 2007 I founded the London branch of the Green Party, I ran our UK election campaign in 2008.
In 2010 I came home, I ran Jan Logie’s by-election campaign,
and in 2011 I stood for Wellington Central where we got 27% of the party vote,
and then again last year where we got 30% of the vote.
We did that by campaigning to the entire electorate, as if everybody was available to us.
By appealing to former Labour and National voters and showing them
that we are a credible, capable, competent party that shared their values and they trusted us with their votes.
That's what Russel has been doing.
He’s established our economic credibility, he’s built trust with the electorate.
Yet last year, research shows us that 28% of voters who considered voting Green but did not do so,
many still felt that we lacked economic credibility.
Our next co-leader has to have that credibility, with the media and with voters.
As co-leader, I will also focus on climate change. This is the greatest challenge of our time.
Countries are deadlocked on this issue. The inaction of all of them gives an excuse for none of them to act.
But if one country breaks that cycle it will create political pressure for all the others to follow.
As Green party co-leader I would make it my number one priority
to reduce New Zealand’s emissions and make us a leader in the fight on climate change.
The Green party must grow, otherwise the next government will be decided by Winston Peters,
and that's no good for the environment and it's no good for our country.
If we keep on doing what we’ve always done we’ll keep on getting what we’ve always got.
We cannot continue with the status quo; it's a path that can lead to stagnation or to decline.
We need to continue our transformation into a broad based political party.
We need a co-leader who is credible with the voters on economic issues,
who can articulate our values to our members and our supporters but also to the wider public.
When you go to your branch meeting please ask your branch to give me your first preference votes.
The future of our party, and by extension our country, is in your hands.
Thank you.
(applause)