“Last one to 150 million tonnes buys the drinks”.
That was departing Green MP James Shaw’s challenge to serving Climate Change Minister, Simon Watts, in his valedictory speech on Wednesday night.
Shaw has set himself the goal of reducing or removing 150 million tonnes of climate pollution from global emissions by 2030 through his future work in the private sector.
It is equal to New Zealand’s non-binding commitment under the Paris Climate Agreement, which the Coalition has promised to achieve.
Shaw was essentially saying he would attempt to deliver an entire country’s worth of emissions reductions almost single-handedly (politicians are rarely short of ego).
And if he can do it, so can the Government.
Before the election, Shaw took a paper to Cabinet which said NZ would have to spend a significant sum of money on offshore carbon credits to meet its 2030 target.
The question is less about whether NZ hits the 2030 target and more about how much of it can be done domestically, versus internationally.
But Shaw had other challenges. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was told not to let his ministers unwind the National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis was asked to extend some version of the Jobs for Nature project which hired people in remote regions to improve the condition of rivers, forests, and bushes.
There was also a serve to his own party, and the entire house, about avoiding partisanship.
He acknowledged Andrew Morrison, the former President of Beef & Lamb, who was beaten in an election by a more strident candidate who had been endorsed by Groundswell.
“[Morrison] got rolled from his job the same year I was also briefly rolled from mine, and for much the same reason,” Shaw said.
“The partisans in our tribes thought each of us had sold out to the other”.
It is true that Shaw was an unusual fit for the Green Party. His maiden speech quoted Margaret Thatcher and his valedictory Henry Ford.
Chlöe Swarbrick, seated beside him in the House, rubbed her brow theatrically as he referenced these two heroes of capitalism and conservatism.
The third term MP was recruited by Shaw to join the party in 2017 and was shoulder-tapped to take over his job after the 2023 election. “Tag you’re it,” he allegedly told her.
Swarbrick later said, at a separate event, she had often been seen as someone “made in his mould” when in reality she was just as much a “thorn in his side”.
The new co-leader has been pitched as a bridge between Shaw-style consensus building and the more radical activism of the party membership.
Still, it can be hard to imagine some members of the party finding common ground with conservative politicians the way Shaw managed.
Barely two hours after the valedictory speech, Green MP Julie Anne Genter lost her temper with National’s Matt Doocey and crossed the debating chamber to yell at him.
It was a stark contrast to Shaw’s appeal for bipartisan cooperation and warm shout-outs to a trio of conservative politicians who had helped NZ achieve Green goals. Todd Muller, Nick Smith, and even Luxon were personally thanked for their contribution to the progress made so far.
“I clearly have a fatal attraction for bald Tories,” Shaw quipped.
In the case of Muller, NZ would not have an “enduring Zero Carbon Act or a Climate Change Commission without him”.
Politicians who were willing to take positions outside of entrenched debates and build alliances across the house could “radically shift the political centre” in their direction.
“Political tribalism is, I believe, the single greatest barrier to creating enduring solutions to the great challenges of our time,” he said.
New gigs
James Shaw’s new job will be at Kiwi investment firm Morrison, which has grown to be an infrastructure giant and has built large amounts of renewable energy abroad.
The firm manages over $38 billion in assets, on behalf of institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds such as the NZ Super Fund, and has a reputation for delivering strong returns.
It is best known for its listed infrastructure fund, Infratil, which owns Wellington Airport and One New Zealand — alongside many overseas assets.
Paul Newfield, chief executive of Morrison, said Shaw's global networks and geopolitical insights would provide value for the firm's investor clients.
Morrison has become particularly focused on building renewable energy and has made massive investments in the United States, Europe, and South East Asia.
Leaders at the firm reportedly reached out to Shaw about the possibility of a job immediately after the election, well before he officially announced plans to step down.
It is with Morrison that the former Climate Change Minister will work to achieve that 150m tonnes of carbon reduction by 2030 goal.
In addition, he will sit on the boards of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) New Zealand and the Sustainability Advisory Panel of Air New Zealand — both are very part-time gigs.
Shaw will also spend one day a week working at a newly formed investment firm called Greenbridge Capital Management. It was founded by Craig Weise, the former chief executive of the New Zealand Green Investment Fund which Shaw helped to establish in 2018, and provides institutions with climate-positive investment options.
75 Comments
Not to excuse Genters behavior, which is not acceptable, but there is a lot of frustration at the Governments disregard for facts and advise. It would seem they have decided theor plan, And are not listening to any advice or opposition. Genter know transport inside out, so I can see it been very frustrating for her. Still no excuse for her actions, and a apology was in order.
She's apparently an authority on parking policy...nothing to do with moving vehicles?
Yep: more out tonight
"Newcombe has had Four Seasons Florist for 30 years. Recently a cycleway's been installed - removing car parks outside her shop.
"My income has been easily halved," she said.
Last week, Genter stopped by and Newcombe said the pair got into a heated exchange about Genter's advocacy for the cycleways.
"She was very intimidating. She pulled out her phone, she put the phone camera right in my face and I was like 'Okay, you need to leave now' and then she started yelling and screaming over me that I didn't care about her kids cycling," Newcombe said."
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2024/05/julie-anne-genter-outbu…
They represent a generation that resents what ours did to them. And we are guilty as charged.
Only by continuing to believe - and I mean BELIEVE - in the possibility of GROWTH, can we avoid that somewhat unnerving truth. We screwed their chances - which is why they include those who have chosen sexualities which don't focus on species-reproduction; we own all the nest-sites, we out-compete them for food (and energy).
They are the future, and as we die out, their vote will increase. In inverse proportion, most of Winnie's supporters are in zimmer-frames.
The fools were the one who thought we could get indefinitely 'rich', at the expense of a finite planet. Swarbrick articulated that very clearly this week - how many heard Morning Report but were tone-deaf? I respect your historical/geographical knowledge, but I suspect you were one?
They represent more than one generation of entitled snowflakes who habitually resent & blame everyone else for their own life choices because they haven't the will & stamina to do anything constructive for themselves.
Not everyone thinks that the future is finite and lifestyles belong in the pre-oil energy past or that human ingenuity & science is incapable of solving difficult problems, as we have before over millennia.
I'm not saying that it will be pretty however I'm optimistic that it will eventually get done if proven necessary for humanity's survival.
Our ingenuity is amazing but on a global scale what we do is burn oil and dig things out of the ground which we then shift to landfill.
The large fortunes have been generated not through innovation but monopolisation of resources and influencing government to kick the ladder out from those trying to make a go of it, no wonder they're angry.
PDK, with respect, said it before to say it again, we all populate a small remote nation at the south east end of the line. On here you have a FREE audience to inform and indeed instruct, at times even lambast . But in reality even should you enlist the entire nation to your cause and argument(s) it unfortunately, regardless of either the cadence or credence of you message, is not going to make a blind bit of difference to the mechanisms and machinations ongoing in the big world beyond our shores. Given your undoubted and excellent research, wide reading and resultant sense of reality, surely you must recognise beating your drum incessantly to such a small platform has very evident limitations. It is the people, millions of them, in the like of Beijing, Washington DC, London, Tokyo, Santiago to name just a few, that you need to tackle and educate. It’s all very well to berate all of us incessantly but frankly as it is , your message is just not going any further than the south east end of the line.
You are capable of better than that.
Why did you think I was alone? What piece of pre-ordained avoidance-mechanism assumed that?
https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/120-tom-chi watch it right through. And there are more than 100 such interviews there. And yes, I've watched them all. And no, I don't agree with some, or with some of some. But just me?
Here's another such clearing-house: https://www.resilience.org/
No, I don't think we'll change the world, but there is nothing to lose by not trying, and this System is falling apart, exactly as the LTG study predicted. Might as well teach the skills likely needed in the next format.
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2024/04/30/a-world-without-growth/
Message/messenger
Just sayin'....
I don't give a rodent's backside what folk think of me - too old and I have enough long-term friends (although we are starting to shuffle off...).
But some folk demonstrate a capacity for thoughtfulness, which I respond to (hence bothering to supply those links).
Some demonstrate the reverse - but even with those I put up links, that others may drink (to conflate an old Arab proverb).
Understood. Have too had my overshare of frustrations, but to balance, some fortunate escapes. Sleep well.
ps. Just to revisit your post here some time ago about meeting a contact through this site and although of a different general persuasion, came to visit, stay and then endure in friendship. As I have offered on here before - two good men of opposing minds will have a greater and productive friendship than two bad men of the same mind.
Bollocks - most of them are socialists not greenies and some of the rest of us are or were card carry members of Forest and Bird and Greenpeace et al when they were environmental organisations
And we knew how to grow our own food way before the juniors learnt how to ride their electric scooters - they have got a lot to learn and do to catch up
PDK tell this to the younger generation who bemoan lower wages a poor health care system and education system. Who then run off to Aus to work in their chosen profession yet put their heads in the sand not understanding that their legal degree which allows them to earn so much money in Sydney is directly or indirectly generated by some company digging a precious metal out of a mine in Aus and shipping it overseas. That is a fact these so called climate concerned people want everyone else to change but won't do it themselves. A bit like Al Gore who consumed more than 4 times the average American in resources yet had the front to tell them to cut back
"Newcombe has had Four Seasons Florist for 30 years. Recently a cycleway's been installed - removing car parks outside her shop.
Insiders tip from someone who deals with this sort of thing for a living, failing businesses love blaming council's for all their woes, parking and cycleway are an easy target. If she was such a great business woman why was she relying on ratepayers subsidising a service which is so crucial to the success of her businesss?
There has never been parking outside her shop. The carparks across the street are still there, as is the Countdown parking ~2mins walk away.
Google Street View Dec 2022: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Four+Seasons+Florist/@-41.3079184,174…
The van across the road is parked in a loading zone that sits over top of what looks like a cycle lane that wasn't fully formed at the time - look up the road a little each way.
On closer inspection there's also a sign (lamp post behind the van) saying the loading zone had been relocated but I can't make out exactly where.
Parking in supermarket carparks and going elsewhere is a good way to get ticketed/clamped in that area now. A friend was pinged for heading off-site to buy a coffee after spending hundreds at the supermarket.
"Parking in supermarket carparks and going elsewhere is a good way to get ticketed/clamped in that area now."
I suggest that your friend did not park in a "public car park available in Countdown Level B2".
And the last time there was parking outside her shop was when?
No, he was parked in a disabled carpark as he is wheelchair-bound. Your previous comment did not make clear there was non-supermarket parking at the Countdown, only that there were parks there. All good, I haven't been in the area for a few years now.
Carparks were across the road from the shop in the June 2021 Streetview image, someone was playing fast and loose with the term "recently."
I venture the more salient issue is Ms Genter's actions rather than the location of parking in the vicinity.
Hard to miss the big blue sign immediately outside her shop describing where the closest parking is.
I'm suggesting the flower shop lady has told an obvious proved untruth, how true is the rest of her story?
Edit: Regarding her alleged drop in business, it is most likely to do with the hospital banning flowers from the shared wards.
I'm not sure where you're going with this.
- There used to be parking outside the shop (directly across the road) that was removed in favour of a cycle lane. This is something to which thousands of locals and anyone looking at older photos of the area can attest. It would be a very strange claim for the shop owner to make if it was so easily disproven.
- No one has yet proven Genter wasn't in the shop. The Greens have clammed up and Genter is not responding, instead working from home.
- If there's some evidence of the flower shop confrontation it will come to light, we'll have to wait and see. Her confrontation with Matt Doocey is on video and undisputed.
I have no skin in this game, I'm unsure why the matter of whether or not the parking ever existed has become a matter of conjecture. I'm sure the media would have run several "breaking news" banner articles if it came to light the car parking at the centre of the issue never existed, and yet none have.
This is a very strange line of conversation, I think I'll step back now. Have a good evening.
In an interview on rnz checkpoint, the florist said Genter came in to buy flowers for a friend in hospital, and the florist said, look at all those ghost cyclists. She mentions greenies and cyclist several times as the enemy, and that her daughter is a greenie, and that causes tension in their household.
It would be interesting to see genters phone footage, and why would genter record if she was the aggressor. The florist didn't come across as a shrinking violet, to pardon the pun, and I would say it was an argument between 2 passionate people on different sides of an issue they feel strongly about.
Yes, there used to be parking across the road that was removed in favour of a cycle lane.
About 100m away, the same distance as it from the flower shop via the nearest crossing, is the Wellington hospital which has capacity for around 1700 cars at any one time.
I think the flower shop lady has an axe to grind, and chose to take it out on someone who does not back down.
Flower shop lady seems to have form in this regard: https://nickrockel.substack.com/p/i-could-be-a-florist
"Genters "expertise" in Wgtn over recent years has resulted in parking costs being at least doubled & parking spaces at least halved (replaced by cycle lanes for the benefit of those <0.01% of the displaced motorists)."
Wellington City Council is responsible for parking policy in Wellington, nothing to do with Genter. But to be fair it's a great outcome people who park should pay their way not be subsidised by ratepayers. As a centrist small government person I abhor the socialist approach of council's subsidising parking.
Like how cyclists pay their way for the cycle infrastructure and PT is completely non subsidized and has to pay for road parking and all infrastructure road costs. No you are just showing a bias and a weak argument again.
Lets see you pay full costs for infrastructure for all your goods, services, trades and deliveries instead of expecting the public to subsidize those costs of parking for you. See how much medical costs would rise for support workers for when you become elderly or the cost of trades parking to facilitate your electrical and plumbing in your home (all non funded by the government at present).
Also you still have not given a reason why those who can only travel via vehicles do not deserve the equitable access to the community spaces and services that you have. I know you act like an ableist who would be happy if all disabled people died tomorrow but please try to not be so obvious about it.
Kettle Black is giving National a free pass to be just as shit because the political party you despise, presumably for that reason, were shit.
Next you'll be saying it's okay to have undercooked chicken at a 5 star restaurant because KFC gives people food poisoning on a regular basis.
Reasonably well perceived as a voice of reason and stability although he had his moments too such as the undue pressure to advance a pet project school. What then does he leave behind? In recent times we have had unsavoury and unbecoming behaviour. The white CIS male outburst , the cry baby insult, the thief and now impulsive aggressive behaviour, an insult to accepted parliamentary decorum. So to sum up then. A party of control freaks with no self control.
They all are.
But at the end of the day, only Swarbrick is looking ahead, clearly. Shaw was business - and where we are heading, profit is probably not possible (and interest-charging will only be in the history-books). So he was Overton-window temporary. She was on Morning Report this week mentioning Kate Raworth and de-growth - meaning she is future-relevant.
Genter's frustation was with wilful ignorance - and we're going to see ever-more of that. The 'growth' narrative is being proven a temporary arrangement, one which - extrapolated - kills us all off. Another word for that is: STUPID. But to keep peddling bull, you have to pretend ignorance, and the pretend, you have to avoid. That sums up the current government across the 3 Parties; willfully ignorant.
That doesn't outlast the next three years of global retrenchment; retreating behind borders, arming, treaty-ing. This is looking like 1935, but about 4 orders of magnitude bigger - a lose-and-you-die global game of Lebensraum fur Herrenvolk. In that light, was Shaw useful? No. But he was less useless than the current 3-Clown Circus; Slane got it to perfection; they are about going backwards - which tells us they've not learned the Muldoon lesson; you cannot recreate the past when the conditions which facilitated that past, have passed.
James Shaw’s new job will be at Kiwi investment firm Morrison, which has grown to be an infrastructure giant and has built large amounts of renewable energy abroad.
Can't imagine this job is a golden parachute. But also can't imagine Shaw as someone who is competent with identifying investment opportunities. Probably being hired to work the floor (schmoozing).
It might not be too late, get in touch with them and make them aware that he's incompetent and let us know how you get on.
Never said he was incompetent. I said "...can't imagine Shaw as someone who is competent with identifying investment opportunities."
Doesn't mean I'm right or wrong. Still think it's a little odd given that he doesn't have a track record of investing in renewable energy projects and the like.
The Green School debacle didn't demonstrate basic competence.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/424732/james-shaw-apologises-for-s…
No - the Green Party are veering away from the high-water-mark that was Marama Davidson (unlimited population and all things indigenous) and are starting to grasp the Limits to Growth. So too are Labour, I believe - although I wouldn't bet on that process seeing the light of day as policy - Labour remind me of the Presbyterian Church circa 1967 (wanting to charge Lloyd Geering with heresy). They won't have a coherent, or very different, policy next time around, but the groundswell of anger at this lot is surprising, this early, and they will be voted out - a negative vote is the most common, nowadays.
If Swarbrick can educate her troops, they may well be the only faction offering relevant-to-the-future policies.
Consensus among a panel of ex National, Act and NZF MPs is that they will not last the term, fingers crossed.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350265554/tova-podcast-will-coalition-…
Yes , Findlayson very interesting reaction , I'm not aware of sour grapes between him and National , so a surprising reaction . the other two , yeah well , no surprises there.
Shaw said something interesting in his interview with Tame on Q & A , that there was m.ps in the greens capable of reaching across the aisle, and we would be surprised who they are.
so i'm thinking if the coalition imploded , Would National and the Greens be able to reach an agreement on confidence and supply? A coalition agreement would be a bridge too far for both sides. Of course it depends which party leaves the coalition , hard to imagine both . As much as I criticise the govt , I don't think an early election would achieve much. Labour needs time to formulate an alternative , not just same old same old.
for the Greens i would say the following would need to be negoiated,
- bring back the clean car discount
-redact cuts to conservation and biodiversity
-amend fast track legislation
-retain smoking reform
- stop the treaty select comittee process , or amend.
I have no inside info , this is just my opinion, of the top of my head.
Goodbye to the discriminatory exclusionist ableist. I hope the door hits him repeatedly.
I would be even happier if Genter was to go also. Between them they have caused a severe removal of transport accessibility for disabled families across many cities. A factor backed by Waka Kotahi research and several independent studies.
He just comes on here wearing his Whaikaha hat and embarks on a long winded exercise to derail the topic into the injustices of disabled people.
Usually starts off like a normal comment in paragraph one, but then halfway through paragraph 2 or 3 of his comment boom it switches to all the things disabled people are missing out on.
Reinstating pseudoephedrine, (a proven medicine which works to significantly improve respiratory functions for those afflicted who had no treatment alternatives) instead of continuing to push to the public pills actually scientifically proven over a decade ago to be worse then placebos for more then $10 a packet a week and claiming it was "treatment". Even giving the public sugar pills instead would have been an improvement but hey they went and reinstated the actual medication. That is 1 thing that on a medical and scientific basis is actively positive and improves NZ productivity & work safety significantly.
Even though I hate their guts on a political basis I cannot be dishonest; it actually is a benefit to NZ particularly to the lower wage, rural, certain demographic e.g. ethnic & elderly blocks (where respiratory issues are rife, more disabling & even deadly).
Normally I speak more on engineering but you folk are just so derogatory and simplistic I cannot get into good sustainability and science discussions. But hey I am here to remind you that different people outside your tiny world view exist and have equal rights to live just as you do. After all it seems you need repeated reminders. Almost like there is an issue with learning. It certainly would explain why your arguments are more on useless drama and less on the technology & detailed financial analysis articles.
Come join me on the fintech articles or even on the heavy science based ones. I doubt you can but hey the pathway to learning is always open, a few decades of experience helps but everyone starts somewhere. I will not ping you for curiosity. I will just ping those who are so open in their denial of rights for disabled people we are still only 1 generation out from mass imprisonment and early death of disabled children from severe physical abuse and their attitude is trying to push NZ back to that direction. Where people had worse imprisoned living conditions then animals we keep simply because of their birth and a lack of your luck to be born this generation and without impairment.
to remind you that different people outside your tiny world view exist and have equal rights to live just as you do. That includes equal rights to equitable access, equal rights to education, to income, to housing etc. Since NZ has near 50% NEET and more than 98% inaccessible I think it is still a relevant point in this day and age that trying to increase inaccessibility and specifically targeting disabled people in comments for punishment and exclusion might get you labelled an ableist. Much like denying entry for people of different ethnicity and advocating for removing further access targeting those people of that ethnicity got people labelled racist.
In exactly the same way Shaw is an Ableist and so is Genter who have done the most harm in a few years to accessibility of public spaces & housing. If anything they are worse because they are openly aggressive in their harm against disabled people. Shaw actually posted pictures detailing why removing disabled people's access specifically to places was a good thing. Something not seen in literature since we closed down the institutions that had their own graves of abused disabled children backing them.
You bring up some good points. Just hope thou that you are not like the liberal left/greens who believe in the right to protest or free speech only as long as it is in their favor but as soon as you protest against them all hell breaks out. Trevor Mallard as a good point.
And James Shaw's thoughtful valedictory is sidelined within a couple of hours by the behaviour of one of his own party's MPs.
Kind of emblematic of the psychopathology of the party and parliament in general - and without a stabilising influence, what fresh hell of behaviour awaits the Greens?
"Shaw will also spend one day a week working at a newly formed investment firm called Greenbridge Capital Management. It was founded by Craig Weise, the former chief executive of the New Zealand Green Investment Fund which Shaw helped to establish in 2018"
Jobs for mates
Just had a quick look at New Zealand Green Investment Fund as I had no idea what they do. Plenty of debt facility. Seems to be their bread and butter.
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