Golriz’s defence of Tory Whanau highlights Green Party Candidate selection problems…

Former Green MP Golriz Ghahraman, who resigned as an MP at the start of 2024 after shoplifting allegations emerged, criticised Little’s decision.

“So Labour are leaving the Super City to a rightwing puppet mayor but they’re going after the only Green mayor and wāhine Māori?” Ghahraman posted on Instagram.

“What’s going on guys, did you learn nothing from that election you just lost?”

..Cough.

I’m not sure Golriz is in any position to lecture anyone on anything, but let’s just pick to pieces her argument.

Golriz is saying that no matter how much of a train wreck Tory Whanau is, the identity politics left must support her BECAUSE she is a female Māori.

That’s the argument.

No matter Tory’s desire to sell the Airport, a critical red line for the Left, no matter Tory’s fuck up after fuck up of interviews, no no no, she is a female Māori, so that is all that matters.

We saw this exact same mentality when the greens kicked out Darleen Tana, who attempted to argue that BECAUSE Tana was a non-binary female Māori, that she should be able to ignore the Greens and remain in parliament because they were ‘represntin’.

We saw this exact same perspective from Benjamin Doyle who refused to remove social media posts that became problematic when the feral Internet Sleuth transphobes hunted them down.

In each case, the persons representative identity is held up above their talent, ability and meritocracy.

Let me be clear, I want MORE Māori women in positions of power, I want way more diversity, I really do – I believe diversity is a strength, not a weakness, but from a Left wing perspective, getting more diverse people in to power is not an end in itself, we need people who have earned that representation because they will push for economic reform beyond their onward tiny niche!

This is a fundamental problem for the Greens in the candidate selection process that they are now being forced to grapple with…

Greens tighten candidate selection process

The Green Party is bolstering its ability to remove or decline potential candidates, give greater scrutiny to who it chooses and is even preparing for a snap election.

…look.

I will stand against the despicable smear on Green MP Benjamin Doyle every single day of the week because it is a obscene character assassination by the alt-Right Culture War Trolls.

Child abuse is a terrible, despicable and horrific plague on our community and we must always fight it and BECAUSE it is such a terrible, despicable and horrific crime the level of evidence must be high.

The supposed ‘evidence’ is the word ‘bussy’ and pedophilic hieroglyphics which would be hilarious if it weren’t so despicable.

However.

I still roll my eyes over the Green candidate selection process and the lack of wider perspective their candidate’s virtue signalling might cause a mainstream electorate.

Andrea Vance is scathing…

And the Greens should have seen the political risk before it ever came to public attention. To not do so was naive, incompetent and put Doyle and their family at risk.

As usual, they are very much a victim of their own preoccupation with identity politics.

And boooooy, did they play victim.

Co-leaders Chlöe Swarbrick and Marama Davidson gave a master class in deflection.

Persecuted matched with condescension is a tricky look to pull off, but the Greens have nailed it.

Swarbrick framed the controversy as an attack on the LGBTQ+ community. While it’s true that Doyle faced homophobic abuse, she ignored the core issue: whether the content of the posts was appropriate for an MP.

Words matter, especially in politics, and regardless of Doyle’s intention, some people were uncomfortable with, or just genuinely confused, by the posts.

But Swarbrick shut down concerns, making out they were only rooted in prejudice and intolerance. (Hands down the best bit of this performance was when she interrupted her earnest lecture on not policing language to tick off a reporter who tripped up over Doyle’s pronouns.)

This refusal to acknowledge mistakes was just as bad faith as the trolls who whipped up the controversy in the first place.

Exactly.

The Greens have allowed their factions enormous power to push their own woke candidates and this means the Party list resembles more an alienating vegan Kink munch more than a serious political party.

The next candidate after Benjamin on the list pole danced to raise funds for the last election…

…the ‘lived experience’ groups inside the Greens have been given enormous selection of candidate powers and they have propelled these Identity Politics candidates up the list, the Greens need a good hard long look at themselves and the candidates they are promoting simply because of their diversity.

The bitter shallowness of Identity Politics has replaced the power of class solidarity and we saw the ultimate showdown of this in the American election where poor white people have become as easily triggered as middle class woke activists and now see themselves as the victim, and when white poor people start seeing themselves in the same victimhood language as the woke, we are in an enormous amount of danger.

Defining ourselves through a constant prism of marginalization helps the Right, not the Left!

Meanwhile the planet is melting.

Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.

‘His impact will never be forgotten’: Former All Blacks coach ‘Grizz’ Wyllie dies

Related storyboards

More stories from Sport (New Zealand)

More stories from New Zealand (Aotearoa)

How Much Artists Get Paid To Perform At Coachella