James Shaw elected new Green Party male Co-leader

James Shaw has been elected as the new male Co-leader of the Green Party at its AGM in Auckland today.

“This election been a good, clean and fair contest, and I would like to acknowledge the hard work of all the candidates,” said Gwen Shaw, Green Party General Secretary.

“Members have been actively engaged in this decision. There have been upward of forty meetings held across the country over the past five weeks. It’s been great to see the candidates and our members having a chance to talk about the important issues facing our country and the world.

The Party uses preferential voting, and James was elected on first preferences:

First preferences
James Shaw 69 (54%)
Kevin Hague 56 (44%)
Gareth Hughes 1 (1%)
Vernon Tava 1 (1%)

“I’m looking forward to the next stage in the development of our party, and seeing our new leadership team of James and Metiria speaking on the issues that matter to New Zealanders like inequality and climate change.

“The Green Party is as strong as it’s ever been with almost 6000 members, our highest vote ever in the 2014 election, and with us fundraising more than Labour in the last year.

“I’m sure we are going to move forward from here with new leadership to help build a better, cleaner future for our country.

“We are also welcoming in a new female Co-convenor for the party, Debs Martin.”

Other incumbent and uncontested roles were returned, including Metiria Turei as female Co-leader, John Ranta as male Co-Convenor, Paul Bailey as male Policy Co-convenor, and Wendy Bailey as female Policy Co-Convenor.

The Party also chose Matthew Fitzsimons, Janine McVeagh and Michael Tavares to form the Te Awa Board (the Green Party’s internal publication).
ENDS

© Scoop Media