When Chlöe Swarbrick first won a seat in Parliament at 23 years old, she was the youngest MP to do so since 1975.
Yet, the Green Party co-leader admitted on Stuff’s new podcast, Kiwi Yarns, that she never intended to be a politician.
“I never intended to go into politics or parliament to fight for drug law reform,” she told Kiwi Yarns host Brodie Kane, an award-winning journalist and broadcaster.
Fast-forward to now though, seven years into her political career, and that’s exactly what the almost 30-year-old is doing.
Swarbrick is the latest guest on Kiwi Yarns, a podcast featuring in-depth interviews with New Zealanders with amazing stories.
During the hour-long interview, Swarbrick spoke to Kane about what drives her; the climate crisis; challenges of the current political landscape; and the coalition Government.
Stuff
So, no hard questions about the Darleen Tana scandal, the ongoing support for a terrorist organisation, the chanting of genocidal chants against Jews or the numerous other scandals besetting them, including parliamentary expenses issues. Nope, just a repeat of how wee Chloe never wanted to be a politician, continuing the hagiographic myth that she was the reluctant politician…instead of the crazy-eyed lunatic in pursuit of power that she really is.
Liam Hehir wrote about this faux reluctance a month ago:
I suppose if you had to choose a New Zealand equivalent you would have to go with Chlöe Swarbrick. The newly minted Green Party co-leader has been at great pains to insist upon her reluctance to hold office. But while she has no ambitions for personal political glory, destiny seems to continue to thrust her reluctantly into the spotlight.
Swarbrick was born in the year of Our Lord, one thousand, nine hundred and ninety-four. She completed university studies in 2016. It was that same year, with great reluctance, that a political career was essentially forced upon her as made a high profile run at the Auckland mayoralty at just 22 years of age. Generating significant media buzz, she placed a very creditable third.
In a crowded field, that was just 160,000 votes behind incumbent Phil Goff and only around 80,000 or so behind centre-right candidate Victoria Crone.
What followed was an intense contest for Swarbrick’s political loyalties. Both Labour and the Greens courted the very reluctant candidate. Somehow the Greens were able to coax her into a reluctant continuation of her political journey. Swarbrick was no doubt horrified when she received an extremely comfortable list placing that all but assured her reluctant election to Parliament in the 2017 election.
Success has continued to follow Swarbrick. She won a brilliant if reluctant insurgency for the seat of Auckland Central in 2020, which she won despite a massive shift towards Labour. With great reluctance, she went on to successfully defend it last year.
Things were looking up for Swarbrick when her career looked stymied by the ascent of Marama Davidson as female co-leader of the party. This made it very hard for Swarbrick to advance because, even if James Shaw retired, there would not be another space in the ruling diarchy for another female identifying candidate.
However, destiny intervened once more. The Greens actually changed their rules in 2022 so that there could be two female co-leaders. That meant, in the event of Shaw’s retirement from the leadership, the path would be open for Swarbrick to reluctantly resume her political ascent.
Shaw hung on until January 2024 before announcing his intention to shuffle off his political coil. This left the Greens in need of a new co-leader. Surprisingly, none of Swarbrick’s parliamentary colleagues put their hand up for the role. It seems the Auckland MPs reluctance had become contagious.
And so, with great reluctance, Swarbrick was forced to take climb yet another rung of the ladder. “[We] need everyday people to not leave politics to the politicians,” she reluctantly announced, drawing a firm line between herself as a non-politician politician and the career politicians who treat politics like a career.
The cynics have been quick to point out that that Swarbrick has spent almost all of her of her post-university life either running for office, getting ready for office or holding office. This is a bit misleading, however. Because while political success and glory has pursued Swarbrick relentlessly, that’s not her fault.
The record is clear, this is a very reluctant politician.
Liam Hehir
Winston knows all about what drives the Greens and Chloe Swarbrick…and says it.
Click to view
She’s not reluctant at all: she’s out for power; the kind of power that destroys economies and ruins livelihoods. It’s called communism, and communists are the biggest liars of them all.
So, when Chloe Swarbrick says she’s reluctant, she’s lying to you. She’s very committed to the insane path she is on.
Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. Cam blogs regularly on the BFD - where this article was sourced.
3 comments:
Bravo Cam.
Spot on Cam.
Talk of lowering the voting age while these people are around is frightening.
The majority of green support are youngsters with little or no idea whats what.
Look all I want to say is that, she is very sneaky and not in a good way. Anything to which she is connected with is corrupted by her. There are too numerous events which support this.
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