I confess that I haven’t paid much attention to James Shaw before, but I have been very impressed with him during recent events. He stood by Metiria Turei completely, never wavered, never blinked. He acted decisively on the two dissenting MPs. He has assumed sole leadership of the Greens calmly and vowed to continue Turei’s mission:
“My main regret is for Metiria. She threw everything into this and politically paid the ultimate price.”
He said seeing the toll the saga took on Turei’s family shocked him, but he was glad a conversation had been started.
“As a result of the campaign Metiria has been running, thousands of people have come out of the woodwork to say ‘these are the circumstances that I’m in, and thank you for taking this on and speaking up’.
“So it is important to me we continue to speak for these people and do them the honour of continuing the campaign to end poverty in New Zealand.”
And now this:
Shaw calls for calm, defends media
…
Mr Shaw said it had been “a tough week” for the Green Party caucus.“Passions are running high. I think people need to breathe through their noses and steady the ship and just get on with the campaign.”
Some supporters have lashed out at media online, accusing reporters of hounding Mrs Turei out of Parliament.
But Mr Shaw said he had “absolutely no hard feelings” for the media.
“In my view, the media have just been doing their job. Some of the interviews have been really tough, but they should have been tough.
“People should just calm down and realise everyone’s just doing their job.” …
The Greens may have lost Turei, but they have seen Shaw grow in stature. I hope and expect to see the Green vote rebound.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress