No-one can say that the Green Party is not ready to play its part in government: while other parties are still drip-feeding policy announcements in the hope of snaring headlines, the Greens released a full manifesto weeks ago. Like them or not, there is no excuse for not knowing where the Green Party stands on an issue.
"We have also released several significant, fully-costed policies as well which sit on top of the manifesto," co-leader James Shaw said.
"We felt that we wanted to go early rather than keep it in the tank because we actually want to spend the campaign talking about those things."
"The manifesto sets out what we really think is achievable in the next term of government," co-leader Marama Davidson said.
"It is couched around being upfront and transparent with voters: this is the mahi that we can actually do ... people are clear about what we stand for and how we would do it."
The Greens, like several other MPs, had to move across the road from Bowen House to the main parliamentary complex after the office block was closed for earthquake repairs.
It now has a meeting room, where we are sitting, which has on its walls a reminder of earlier battles by the party to survive ... the briefcase which belonged to Jeanette Fitzsimons, who won Coromandel to keep the Greens in Parliament, and the braces of Rod Donald, who did much to keep them there.
Three years ago early polling suggested that the Greens would once again be flirting with the 5% threshold. In the end the party made it relatively comfortably and current polling — partly propelled by Labour’s dwindling numbers — has the Greens on target for a record number of MPs.
All this despite attempts by the rank and file to depose Mr Shaw, and the rancorous departure of Elizabeth Kerekere from caucus.
"This my sixth general election campaign and we are in better shape than we have ever been in the time that I have been involved," Mr Shaw said.
"We have a great list of candidates, we have put a full policy programme out, it is resonating with the public, our campaign machine is really good, we are getting quite good at running elections so we are feeling really good. We want a third term in government, with as much influence over policy as we can."
The Greens can point to some progress on their goals in three years, although opponents will say it is too much and the party’s own left-wing say it is far from enough. A climate emergency has been declared, decarbonising the state sector by 2025 continues apace, the emissions trading scheme has been strengthened, emissions budgets are in place, and a range of incentives for citizens and industry put in place to eliminate or cut their fossil fuel use. Although slowly, emissions are gradually dropping.
All of which has made Mr Shaw hopeful that international carbon targets New Zealand has signed up to, particularly the Paris targets, are achievable.
"I am increasingly confident that we will, but the hardest part is getting started. Once you have fundamentally shifted the direction of the economy the momentum starts to build and it carries itself forward, but we are in that transition phase of having to put huge amounts of effort into incremental change."
"We have already had two terms in a governance arrangement as a smaller party," Ms Davidson added.
"We have defied political history and increased our support, which you are not meant to do ... we can get stuff done, but we need a whole lot more Green MPs.
"We need proven leadership that is committed to reducing climate pollution, and that is only the Green Party."
The day we meet is the same week that both Labour and National release their big spending roading policies, documents which make both Mr Shaw and Ms Davidson roll their eyes.
"It’s worse than depressing," she said.
"But it motivates us even more to be really clear that we are the ones offering the enduring solutions for the generations that are going to have to live with our decisions, and that is what we are focused on."
The need to focus on the climate, but also the need to contribute on all political fronts, is a constant dilemma for the Greens: the party is regularly bagged, from all sides, for not sticking to its knitting and concentrating on its bedrock environmental issues.
However, Ms Davidson and Mr Shaw are adamant that each is entwined and certainly not mutually exclusive.
"When we come up with a policy like we did around ending poverty, people say well we just want you to be an environmental party and we just want you to focus on climate change and biodiversity and so on," Mr Shaw said.
"It is really hard to convince someone to stick solar panels on their roof or to get interested in climate change if they are struggling to put food on the table, or don’t have a roof. It’s not that they don’t want to do that other stuff or don’t care about it, they just have more immediate concerns.
"Building a more inclusive society is important for its own sake, but also it is a necessary precursor for climate action."
The Greens on:
Tax: "People recognise as a society that we are fraying, that we have both an increase in inequality and concentration of wealth, and we say we want 95% of people to have more money in their pockets to be able to afford life’s basics, through a fairer tax system." — James Shaw.
Free dental care: "It can be done, we have capacity in dental in ways we don’t in the rest of the health system." — Marama Davidson.
Energy: "If we are going to electrify transport and all of our heavy industry, which currently runs on coal and gas, we will need about two-thirds more electricity generation than we do today ... and it all has to be renewable. That requires rethinking the electricity system." — James Shaw.
Roading: "More roads is an expensive way of answering the wrong question, when we could instead prioritise spending on cycling, walking and public transport." — Marama Davidson.
Local issues
The new Dunedin Hospital: "We still support a fully-funded Dunedin Hospital." — James Shaw.
Housing in Queenstown: "We are very aware of the issue, our housing plan is about massively upscaling community and public housing supply, as well as rent controls, all of which are issues for Queenstown." — Marama Davidson.
Oamaru Hospital: "We need to support the local capacity to provide that expertise." — Marama Davidson.
Tiwai Point: "We are agnostic about Tiwai. It’s going to help that we can recycle all our aluminium inside the country, but Tiwai is about 11% of the country’s electricity grid — we are going to need about 170%." — James Shaw.
— Tomorrow: National leader Christopher Luxon.
