Greens follow Hooton’s advice

Stuff reports:

Green backbencher Marama Davidson is the new co-leader of the party.

She replaces Metiria Turei as female co-leader alongside male co-leader James Shaw.

Davidson won a resounding victory against the only other competitor Julie Anne Genter, with 110 votes to 34.

Congratulations to Marama and commiserations to Julie Anne. A huge margin of victory.

Matthew Hooton wrote in Metro that Davidson was the better choice as the Greens have ruled out ever working with National. This means their best hunting ground is to the left of Labour.

The challenge is that Labour is looking so left itself on many issues, that it will be hard to make the case to vote for Davidson and Shaw rather than Ardern. Ardern is arguably more purist on climate change than they are.

The election of Davidson is interesting from a Maori perspective. Four of the five parliamentary parties now have a Maori leader. Only Labour do not.

Three of the five parties also have a Maori deputy leader.

In fact of the nine MPs who have leadership roles in parties, only two are not Maori – James Shaw and Jacinda Ardern.

Davidson should be effective for the Greens as she is not a Minister. It means 100% of her energies will go into flying the Green brand, not reading cabinet papers and meeting officials.

However her views of what will attract more voters to the Greens may be an issue. Gaza is not an issue for most New Zealanders.