Mike's Minute: Today we say goodbye to James Shaw MP

So, bye bye James Shaw; Valedictory Day today. 

He is in the interesting position of having left behind something potentially quite substantive. 

The Net Zero laws, we will be neutral by 2050. But then that’s the problem isn't it? My bet is we wont. 

So, what's your legacy when the big bit you left behind turns into dust? 

Could be wrong of course, but as 2050 gets ever closer, the goal doesn’t. In fact, we are moving in completely the wrong direction. 

It's an idea and a series of polices that have been driven by good intentions but overtaken in ensuing years by cold hard reality. 

He will mention it, I am sure, in his Valedictory today in the Parliament. 

He will speak proudly of it, as well he might because the bit he leaves behind is the reputation that he was actually a Green MP in the true sense of the word as opposed to being like too many of the others; loud mouth protestors and reactionaries to the buzz cause of the day. 

He also has the advantage of being a nice guy. You don’t have to agree with him to get on with him. 

But in totality you can't help but conclude he got hijacked by causes beyond his control. 

The way they handled his co-leadership was shocking for a bloke who provided so much ballast to the party. They rewarded him with yet another of their wackjob hatchet attempts which culminated, if you remember, in him standing for the job unopposed because the idiots who drove it lacked any sort of planning or spine. 

He also spent a lot of time explaining, or apologising, or defending the various versions of madness that passed for Green Party behaviour. 

Turei to Golriz to Tana, a report we are still standing by for by the way, how many times was it suggested he was in the wrong party? But then as easy as that is to say, what would his party have been? 

He is a good old fashioned environmentalist who came from the corporate world to try and make a bit of decent change and rarely lost his good sense and fine humour in doing so. 

The Parliament has too much rabble these days, so his departure sadly tips the balance even further. 

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