{news} Fw: USGP-INT New Zealand Green Election report

[Justine McCabe]

FYI: GP of New Zealand elections
Justine
 -------- Original Message --------
 Subject: Green Announce: Message from Co Leaders and SGM
 Date: Sat, 15 Nov 2008 18:10:29 +1300
 From: Green Party of Aotearoa NZ <greenparty at greens.org.nz>


 Green Party of Aotearoa NZ
 http://www.greens.org.nz/

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Tena koutou

 Thank you for helping out in the Green Party election campaign.

 The Green Party is now established as the third largest party in our
 Parliament. We have increased our proportion of the party vote from 5.3%
 to 6.4% before special votes are counted.

 We now have eight Greens in Parliament, including two new Green MPs
 Kevin Hague and Catherine Delahunty. We hope that the special votes will
 bring in Kennedy Graham as the ninth Green MP.

 We ran our best campaign ever.

 Based on the polls leading into the election we all hoped to do better
 than 6.4%. But given that there was a strong mood to change the
 government, and that the Greens were associated with that government in
 the public mind, it was a strong result. In fact we were the only party
 associated with the Labour-led government to increase our party vote.

 We would prefer to be part of an incoming Green-Labour government, but
 we also celebrate the fact that we live in a democracy and especially
 one with a proportional system, so we accept the election result and
 congratulate National on the outcome.

 The Green MPs will seek to engage constructively with the new Parliament
 and the new Government as we always do. However, we will also speak out
 strongly if the incoming government moves to take our country in the
 wrong direction on social and environmental policy.

 The Green Party hasn’t found itself in opposition since the 1996
 election when we were still inside the Alliance. We are strongly
 committed to ensuring that there is a strong Green voice in Parliament.
 Person for person we have the strongest team of MPs and we are very
 confident that green ideas and the green vision of sustainability,
 justice, fairness and peace will be heard loud and clear over the next
 three years.

 The world faces a challenging future - on top of the financial crisis we
 have an energy crisis and a climate change crisis. We need a Green ‘New
 Deal’ to address these triple crises - a package of infrastructure
 investment similar to that pursued by Franklin D Roosevelt in the United
 States in the 1930s, but addressing the great sustainability issues
 facing our planet and our species. There is reason to be hopeful that
 the world will address these crises with the election of Barack Obama.
 While we don’t know exactly what Barack Obama’s presidency will look
 like, it is certainly a much more hopeful future than that provided by
 the US Republican Party.

 In Aotearoa New Zealand the Greens will continue to put forward a
 positive vision of sustainability with fairness regardless of the
 attitude of the government of the day. Ideas do matter, and we will seek
 influence the direction of the government and our country by promoting
 green ideas.

 Once again thank you for your contribution to the Green campaign,
whatever form that contribution took. The Greens are a flaxroots
movement that relies on its grassroots members and supporters for
sustenance. We could not have run this campaign without your support.

We hope you have a great summer and get a chance to enjoy the natural
environment that makes Aotearoa New Zealand such a fantastic place to live.

Best Wishes
Jeanette Fitzsimons and Russel Norman
Green Party Co-Leaders

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