Greens Gather For Annual Meeting Focused On Building Voters' Trust
The caucus and party faithful are gathering for their annual meeting in Wellington central this weekend.
The party had a tumultuous start to the term. This time last year, Swarbrick led the party alone, with co-leader Marama Davidson out of action, fighting cancer.
She also fielded questions about former MP Darleen Tana's future, as the party mulled swallowing its pride and invoking the waka-jumping laws to get rid of her.
With Davidson back and Tana now gone, it's been relatively steady going for the party this year. It put out its own 'Green Budget' in May - a plan that promised free doctor visits, dental care and an income support scheme, funded by a suite of wealth taxes.
Swarbrick said she was "stoked" heading into this year's annual meeting.
"I'm feeling really, really good," she said. "We're in a position where we have released four sizable and substantive policy pieces.
"Being in this position now, with Marama back, and having a really strong, really capable, really focused team, it's just going to be awesome."
The co-leaders have been out and about this year, holding meetings through local branches, as part of a nationwide roadshow.
Swarbrick has been to Northland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Gisborne and Taranaki, where she said she met a lot of "Green-curious" voters.
"A lot of people have been turning up, who have felt very strongly that the status quo of politics is not working for them, and so they're interested in understanding what our proposals, what our solutions actually are."
The Green Party had no shortage of policy on the table, but Swarbrick said that wasn't enough.
"There's no point being right, if we are left clinging to our mountains of evidence, when the last tree is cut down.
"The Greens have long prided themselves on having the evidence and the facts, and the basis for the policies that we're putting out there, but clearly - unfortunately - that hasn't been enough to get us into a position of commanding a large enough portion of the vote to get those sizable, transformative policies across the line."
She said the Greens were focused on building the public's trust with the party in the coming year.
"Having those policies is critical, so that people know that we have a backbone, we actually know what it is that we're talking about, but the far more critical ingredient is building trust," Swarbrick said.
"That is the work that we've been doing on the ground, organising with people and having them understand that things can be so much better, if we all occupy our power and make it a reality."
Swarbrick said, no matter what Labour went on to announce, the electorate knew where the Green Party stood on a swathe of issues.
"We intend to be in a position to negotiate government, where we have been completely transparent about the things that we want to do."
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