james shaw

I have never really been able to work James Shaw out. 

As he quit his leadership yesterday, which made perfect sense, he waxed lyrical about the Green Party, and its achievements, and its place in the political landscape.  

Which makes no sense because they are a mess and no longer remotely green, and he stands out like the dogs proverbials as the one remaining environmentalist. 

Of course, you wouldn't expect him to bag them, but he speaks with such clarity and conviction about them. He is either a sensational performer, or he actually believes it. 

He must know surely, he was the last one standing. The rest are just rabid extremists. 

And therefore, the future of the Greens is anything but assured. And without his ballast and experience they open themselves to the ever-increasing reality of heading off down a track of performance art, complete with pro-Palestinianan flags and scarves. 

Rod Donald and Jeanete Fitzsimons were at least green. 

But your Sue Bradfords muddied the waters with their social engineering bent, which then led to your Marama Davidson years where chat about snails and national park walkways gave way to cis white males and anti-establishment fury. 

Before Golriz caught the attention of the retail community she too added to the Davidson view of the world: Not a lot of climate change, an awful lot of protest and left leaning angst. 

I suppose Julie Anne Genter had green credentials, with her Get Wellington Moving vision and her road to zero campaign, both of which you will note are the most abject of abject failures, but at least they had a tinge of the environment about them. 

A lot of us when it came to James sort of felt bad for him. What on earth was he still doing there? 

They tried to oust him as leader for goodness sake! He took no part in any of their mad cap protests, marching for causes that had nothing to do with being green. 

He looked like a fish out of water, and yet still he stayed for 9 long years. 

Until now. 

I always had the impression he could have done so much more if only he hadn't been hanging with the crazies. 

A decent bloke with his heart and intentions in the right place just hijacked by or held captive by people around him he thought were his mates. 

Next stop surely the full-blown freedom of the outside world; run James, run. 

There is a big bright world out there and you can do a lot of good in it 

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Tonight on The Huddle, Neale Jones from Capital and Trish Sherson from Sherson Willis PR joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day- and more!

James Shaw stepped down as co-leader of the Green Party. Was this expected? What will Shaw's legacy be?

The Government changes their minds on the status of the country's UNRWA funding, with contributions pausing until Foreign Minister Winston Peters approves. What inspired this rethink? Is this the right decision?

Chris Luxon and David Seymour are at odds over the Treaty, with Luxon now saying the Treaty is akin to a partnership - exactly what Seymour doesn't think. Was it a good move for Luxon to take a stand?

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One expert is predicting James Shaw's next career move following his departure from the Greens.

Shaw announced he'll step back as party co-leader- but stay on in Parliament for the first reading of his Right to a Sustainable Environment Bill.

BusinessDesk managing editor Pattrick Smellie suspects James Shaw could eventually replace Rod Carr as Climate Change Commission chair.

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One expert is predicting James Shaw's next career move following his departure from the Greens.

Shaw announced he'll step back as party co-leader- but stay on in Parliament for the first reading of his Right to a Sustainable Environment Bill.

BusinessDesk managing editor Pattrick Smellie suspects James Shaw could eventually replace Rod Carr as Climate Change Commission chair.

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A former Green MP says it's no surprise James Shaw has stepped aside as co-leader.

He's announced he'll stand down in March, but remain an MP to back his Sustainable Environment Bill's first reading.

Gareth Hughes says Shaw got the Party into Government for six years, so he can say mission accomplished.

"It makes sense, I think, for him- and also for the Party to refresh itself and look to the future."

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It's not altogether a surprise that James Shaw has quit as co-leader of the Green Party.

It's pretty well known that there are factions in the Green Party that have wanted him to move on for a while now.

There was a public attempt to remove him about a year and a half ago, and it while he won that- it always felt like it was only a temporary reprieve to get them through the election and safely out of Government.

And then he would have to make way, probably for Chlöe Swarbrick.

The good news for the Greens is that Chlöe isn't a bad heir to the throne, she is very popular and very capable- she could take them to even greater numbers.

But he is still a loss to that party, because he was unique in the Greens in that he got on really well with business people.

I often heard stories about various business groups having had some MPs from various parties come talk to them and everyone was impressed with James Shaw. It was not rare to hear that.

And he should be proud of the shape of the party he's leaving behind. It's probably one of his most significant achievements as co-leader that the Green Party caucus is the biggest it's ever been.

That was no small feat, given the unique tension between the climate warriors and the social justice warriors in the party.

On top of that, they've faced some significant challenges- and they didn't end up doing as much damage as you'd think.

Metiria Turei's benefit fraud admission, Shaw's own green school funding snafu.

Even just being in Government, which has hurt every minor party that’s ever done it- except the Greens, because they came out with a bigger caucus.

I worry a little bit that without him, the Greens will become less of an environment party and more of a social justice, anti-capitalism party and that they drag a future Labour-led Government further down that track.

So maybe in the end he’s not just a loss for the Greens, but actually a loss for all of us.

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The Greens are the quiet movers in the latest poll. 

The latest Newshub-Reid Research poll puts them up 1.9 points to 14.2%, a result which would deliver them 18 MPs. 

Labour was down slightly to 26.5%, National dropped a bit more to 39.1%, and ACT fell to 8.8%. 

New Zealand First would just make it to Parliament on the numbers at 5.2%. 

Green Party Co-Leader James Shaw told Mike Hosking that he's campaigning to be returned to Government. 

He says a lot of people write off the election before voters have their say, but he wants to see where the cards fall and play the hand they're dealt the best he can. 

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Well, good luck to James Shaw trying to convince Kiwis it’s a bad idea for National to give us that climate dividend as part of their tax cuts.

He's going as hard as he can. Yesterday, he said it "pissed him off" and it was “incensing him”, and today he’s put out a press release saying he’s “insulted”.

What he’s upset about is that National has used the ETS money to pay for their tax cuts. The ETS money collects from us all paying a little tax every time we do something that pollutes the planet.

So when you buy petrol, some of your bill is an ETS levy. When you pay your power bill, some of it is on the ETS, and so on.

Now, James and the Labour Government have famously used that money to help corporates cut their emissions.

So they used $140 million of the ETS money to buy the furnace for the Glenbrook Steel Mill owned by the Australian company BlueScope. And they used $90 million to help Fonterra cut back on coal burning. 

Both BlueScope and Fonterra could’ve paid for that themselves, because BlueScope declared a profit of more than a billion Aussie dollars and Fonterra declared more than half a billion Kiwi dollars.

National is instead giving us that money back. To be fair, they are wrong to call it a climate dividend, because it’s not. It’s something completely different- but they’re still giving it back to us.

And there is good reason for them to do this, because that ETS tax that you are paying is part of the reason life is more expensive.

Between February 2021 and February 2022, it sneakily pushed up petrol by 10 cents a litre, it pushed up your gas bills and pushed up the cost of your fruit and veges because the petrol and diesel cost more to truck them to the shops.

That is going to keep happening as we fight climate change and the ETS keeps taxing us more.

So good luck to James Shaw trying to convince us that as we pay more and more, the money should be given to corporates and not to us.

It is a weird day when the Green Party co-leader is more worried about helping an Australian company than Kiwis doing it tough. 

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The Government has boosted the Emissions Trading Scheme’s auction reserve price- and increased the overall price of carbon by 44 percent.

It's also raising trigger prices for the cost containment reserve in the scheme, meaning there will be 17.6 million fewer units to be auctioned.

ACT Environment spokesperson Simon Court says this change is a sign James Shaw is failing to take what's important to New Zealanders into account.

"By adopting the Climate Change Commission's recommendations to jack up the carbon price from $50 to $80 to $100 to even $200 a ton in a short space of time- that's going to add a significant weight to the cost of living."

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Former Green Party advisor and PR specialist David Cormack chats to Nick Mills about the tension that appears to be increasing between the Green Party and Labour, and why so many people are calling for James Shaw to resign.

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Tamatha Paul is promising she can continue to do a good job on city council while running for Wellington Central.

Green Party Co-Leader James Shaw's announced he's not running for the seat, instead endorsing Tamatha Paul.

The city councillor currently has one of the biggest roles around the table, chairing the Environment and Infrastructure Committee.

However Paul says she's confident she can continue performing the role.

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Transporting NZ CEO Nick Leggett and political commentator Brigitte Morten join Nick Mills for Friday Faceoff. 

Together they analyse James Shaw endorsing Tamatha Paul  for the Wellington Central electorate, how Mayor Wayne Brown has performed during the Auckland floods, Chris Hipkins continuing the fuel tax cuts and his Cabinet reshuffle.

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Fair enough for James Shaw to back his co-leader Marama Davidson over her speech about the Queen this week.

 I can’t see that Marama Davidson did anything wrong.

I think some have the impression that using the first set of speeches to mark the Queen’s death was the wrong time for Marama Davidson to have a crack at the royals for colonisation.

And that she was complaining that the Queen’s death was distracting from Maori language week.

But that's not a fair representation of the speech. Marama Davidson was actually quite respectful.

 She made a point at the start of the speech of acknowledging the grief the Queen’s family will be feeling and the love many Maori have expressed for the Queen.

And then gently spoke about colonisation and the impacts on Maori. And what she really saved her powder for was Parliament itself: the fact that Parliament was taking the week off.

Marama Davidson argues a week is too long because there is too much work being missed now. On that point I wholeheartedly agree with her. Taking an entire week off smacks of nothing but laziness from MPs.

On the other stuff - the impacts of colonisation - you might not agree with Marama Davidson.  People hold different opinions, but all you can ask is that they’re voiced in a respectful and measured way and she did exactly that.  

Which is a hell of a lot more than you say can about the Australian NRL player who called the Queen a dog, the indigenous academic in the states wishing pain on the Queen, or even the borderline stuff Maori party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was retweeting on the day the Queen died.

At least Marama Davidson delivered her speech in a dignified way.

So fair enough of James Shaw to back her up.

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All eyes will be on Chris Luxon going into his first National Party Conference as party leader.

However, it hasn't been a good week for the National Party, with doubts from commentators on his leadership.

And the Party President role is up for grabs, with Peter Goodfellow stepping down.

It also wasn't a good week for James Shaw.

Shaw was the only candidate named for their leadership contest, there are questions over whether he will get past the 75 percent threshold to retain his leadership.

Rotorua locals are standing up to their council.

More than 3600 submissions have been received on the issue of using motels for emergency housing.

Newstalk ZB Political Editor Barry Soper joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.

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Newstalk ZB chief political reporter Aaron Dahmen chats with Nick Mills about James Shaw's co-leadership challenge, deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson latching onto Christopher Luxon's social media oversight and Dr Ashley Bloomfield's last few days as Director-General of Health. 

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James Shaw has confirmed he will contest the Green Party's co-leadership after being ousted from the role.

"I am in it to win it," Shaw told reporters saying he had spoken to party members and family and had decided to stand again as Green Party co-leader.

Shaw made the announcement after failing to get the 75 per cent votes of delegates at the party's online annual meeting at the weekend to be reconfirmed in the role. Co-leader Marama Davidson was reconfirmed by delegates.

This opens up the co-leadership role this week to challengers.

Former communications and policy director to the Green Party David Cormack joins Nick Mills to analyse the situation.

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Labour MP for the Hutt South Ginny Andersen and National's deputy leader Nicola Willis join Nick Mills for Politics Monday. 

During the hour they clash over drugs and alcohol rehabilitation programmes and discuss James Shaw not being confirmed as the Green Party's co-leader.

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The Greens trying to roll James Shaw is about the most active thing I can think of that the Greens have done during this whole electoral cycle.

As a party you don't hear much about them doing anything, in part I guess because they're so wrapped up with the Labour party now that there's less theatrics and vocal opposition to things.

So it’s good to see them exercised about something - although a party in disunity is never a great sign.

I’m wondering if part of James Shaw’s problem is actually the aforementioned - the Greens have become too cosy with Labour for many hardcore Greens liking.

And on top of that, James Shaw is actually very likeable. He seems about the most reasonable and rational of all of them, which is possibly why a portion of the party’s trying to roll him.

They seem to prefer radicals and activists. People more on the fringe - people who are more vocal and edgy - like Chlöe Swarbrick. I think if Chlöe throws her hat in the ring it will be game over for Shaw. But she’d have to be keen to make her leadership run now - which she may not – and if she doesn’t, then I can’t see who else is a contender.

Former Greens MP Catherine Delahunty has given some good insights already into what’s going on from the activists’ point of view. Shaw is too agreeable.

He doesn’t rark it up enough, he doesn’t hold Labour to account enough, he doesn’t agitate strongly enough.

Delahunty sees Shaw as ‘weak’, but she wouldn’t speculate on other potential leaders, and that’s the problem, are there any?

Apart from Swarbrick, probably not. And this is where the Green obsession with ideology comes unstuck.

According to Delahunty, the Greens need to focus on ‘vision,’ rather than individuals.

She told a reporter yesterday that, “it was important to focus on the vision other potential leaders offered, rather than speculating on which individual.”

So she wants “transformative policies to stop climate change, defend the vulnerable in society, and improve social justice”, but admits she can’t think of anyone who could do that.

So maybe that’s where James keeps his leadership role. In wanting more, or different, or better, many Greens don’t even know what that is or could look like.

If they’re just looking for ‘vision’ then the foundation of their search is all a bit vague. Anyone can offer ‘vision’, what you need is runs on the board, progress and collaboration.

James Shaw managed to get the Greens into a government Cabinet, he's made huge strides on climate change, he shepherded through the Emissions Trading Scheme. He's gotten things done.

But that’s not what activist fringe Greenies want; they want social engineering, they want ‘vision,’ they want noise for noise’s sake, and they seemingly want the opposite of all that James Shaw represents.

Delahunty said, “It's got to be different from a middle-class, middle-age party just propping up the Labour government."

Is that the tired old woke catch cry of getting rid of middle aged white men?

Because if it’s just about ‘not wanting James’, but they don’t know what they want instead, then I’d say the whole exercise seems futile, pointless and a waste of everybody’s time.

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Hon James Shaw is Aotearoa New Zealand's Minister for Climate Change, Associate Minister for Environment and the co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand.

In this frank conversation, the Minister discusses how the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand resolves political differences within their organisation and his top tips for surviving the world of politics.

This episode was recorded in July 2019 and is the first of two parts to this conversation.

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Townhall Review – April 28, 2018

Retiring Speaker of the House Paul Ryan joins Hugh Hewitt looking on his accomplishments as Congressman and Speaker of the House. Michael Medved and Daily Beast columnist Gordon Chang discuss the evolving and historic developments between North Korea, the United States and the world. Dennis Prager questions if protests over political disagreements are crossing the line of civility. Michael Medved shares how James Shaw, the hero who stopped the shooter at a Waffle House restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee, continues to be a hero for the victims. Dennis Prager looks at a bill in the California legislature challenging the ability of religious traditionalists to provide services to those struggling with sexual identity or orientation. Hugh Hewitt asks Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic, about the hiring, then firing, of Kevin Williamson allegedly over a comment he made about abortion years earlier. Mike Gallagher looks at the unusual comments made by Toronto mayor John Tory during a press conference that followed the deadly automobile attack killing 10 and leaving 14 others hurt.

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