The Green Society was a small

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

dedicated to

environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks ...

. It was established in the spring of 1994 by former members of the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

, including Hans Grueber, Chris Marshall, and Peter Whitmore. They opposed the decision by the Green Party to become part of the

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

, a broad left-wing coalition – they stated that this "abandoned a long tradition of being an independent green political force", diluting the group's pure environmental focus. At the same time, they were critical of another Green Party off-shoot, the Progressive Green Party, for being too close to the right and therefore not independent either. The Green Society described itself as the only truly "green" party in the New Zealand political environment. In its manifesto, the Green Society described itself as "the party caring for your earth and her people", and its policies emphasised environmental protection, personal autonomy, and self-reliance. Political commentator Bryce Edwards described them as representing a "lifestyler" and "hippie" branch of the green movement, contrasting with a left-wing activist branch (the Green Party) and a pragmatic centrist branch (the Progressive Green Party).

Colin James Colin James (born Colin James Munn, August 17, 1964) is a Canadian rock and blues singer and songwriter. Biography Early years James was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. His grandpa was Serbian. He got his break opening for Stevie Ray V ...

, another political journalist, characterised the group which gave rise to the Green Society as having an "almost mystic",

holistic Holism () is the idea that various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term "holism" was coined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book '' Holism and Evolution''."holism, n." OED On ...

approach to environmentalism, valuing a spiritual or intuitive relationship with nature rather than scientific one. In the 1996 election, the Green Society's top-ranked candidate was Simon Reeves, an environmental lawyer who also contested the Auckland Central electorate. The party contested eight electorates as well as the party list, but gained only 1,140 electorate and 2,363 list votes (0.11%), failing to win any seats. The party did not contest the 1999 election and was deregistered in February 2001.

References

{{Historic New Zealand political parties Political parties established in 1994 Green political parties in New Zealand Political parties disestablished in 2001 Defunct political parties in New Zealand Defunct green political parties