More on the Greens list

I published last week a draft Green Party list. The Greens said it was an entirely unofficial list, and was not the list that the hierarchy and electorate delegates put together for members to vote on. That is correct, as that list is yet to be drawn up. But in political parties it is not unusual for different factions to start circulating what they see as their desired list.

The source who provided the draft list has elaborated:

I can confirm that the list I gave you the other week came from the parliamentary wing of the party. It reflects internal thinking that the party needs to constantly refresh caucus as this has been done well up to now. Good performance needs to be rewarded and poor performance needs to be dealt with accordingly.

In particular, there is a lot of support for Julie Anne Genter to secure the Transport Minister role amongst parliament and and the wider party. Hence her big jump and high ranking.

Marama Davidson and Aaryn Barlow are seen as up and comers with strong personal backgrounds and were good candidate performers. James Shaw rounds off a solid 1st 15.

David Clendon has been demoted in the list as he is regarded as lazy and lacking cut-through while Steffen Browning is seen as a political liability by his caucus colleagues. Kennedy Graham begins to drop down the rankings and while being a poor performer in opposition it is hoped his previous experience may help in government.

I would be surprised if many in the Greens disagreed with those assessments. What will be interesting is if the draft list out together by the hierarchy is close to the list that was circulating last week. It will not be identical of course, but the key things to look out for is whether Genter shoots up the rankings, and if Browning and Clendon stay in the top 10.

UPDATE: A manager with the parliamentary party has said on the record that the parliamentary leadership and senior staff have not had any involvement with the unofficial list that was sent to me. They can’t rule out that someone at Parliament hasn’t compiled their own wish list, and been pushing it – but they are unaware of any activity like that and do not sanction it. I believe those assurances.

I have no reason however to doubt the source has said anything untrue, and that they did not receive the list from someone in Parliament. I won’t print anything I believe to be untrue. The source has been reliable in the past. Also I do apply my own judgement to a degree and the rankings in the unofficial list do meld with general consensus around the beltway around individual MPs. If for example someone sent me what purports to be an unofficial Green Party list with Browning ranked No 3, I’d laugh out loud as I hit the trash bin.