Roland Sapsford is a former male co-convenor (organisational president) of the

Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand ( mi, Rōpū Kākāriki o Aotearoa, Niu Tireni), commonly known as the Greens, is a green and left-wing political party in New Zealand. Like many green parties around the world, it has four organisational ...

. The female co-convenor in the latter part of his office was Georgina Morrison. Sapsford was elected co-convenor in a contested election at the Green Party AGM in 2006, at the same time as former male co-leader

Russel Norman Russel William Norman (born 2 June 1967) is a New Zealand politician and environmentalist. He was a Member of Parliament and co-leader of the Green Party. Norman resigned as an MP in October 2015 to work as Executive Director of Greenpeace Aote ...

's election. He stood down in June 2012 after six years, during which the Party's finances and organisation were significantly enhanced. Sapsford was a candidate for the Greens in the

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

and

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

General Elections and was their campaign co-manager in their first successful bid to enter the

Parliament of New Zealand The New Zealand Parliament ( mi, Pāremata Aotearoa) is the unicameral legislature of New Zealand, consisting of the King of New Zealand (King-in-Parliament) and the New Zealand House of Representatives. The King is usually represented by his ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

. Over the period 2000–2005 he worked for the Green Party in the New Zealand Parliament and was credited by the

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

ACT New Zealand ACT New Zealand, known simply as ACT (), is a right-wing, classical-liberal political party in New Zealand. According to former party leader Rodney Hide, ACT's values are "individual freedom, personal responsibility, doing the best for our natur ...

party as having a major influence over sustainable transport legislation enacted during that time. Prior to becoming campaign co-manager in 1999, Sapsford was the Green Party's national policy convenor from 1996–1999. He first joined the Green Party in 1993. Outside of the Green Party, Sapsford has a long history of local activism; an early example being his efforts to form a secondary school students union in the early 1980s. During the 1990s he was spokesperson and convenor of Campaign for a Better City (CBC) which, from 1994 to 2004, led a prolonged and highly popular but ultimately unsuccessful campaign to halt the construction of a major road through the historic Te Aro area of Wellington City. He was active in the creation of the brief Heartbeat Wellington campaign in 2005, which successfully opposed the introduction of a V8 Streetcar race in Wellington, and Option3 in 2006, which advocated for sustainable transport solutions in the Wellington region. Sapsford was also co-chair of the Aro Valley Community Council for many years until 2008, when he retired from this role. He remains a Trustee of the Te Aro Heritage Trust. Sapsford was the lead researcher for the Greens in Parliament on drug policy and produced a submission supporting the Party's policy on the normalisation of cannabis use. Roland Sapsford lived in the

Aro Valley The Aro Valley forms a small inner-city suburb of Wellington in New Zealand. It takes its name from the stream which originally flowed where modern Epuni Street is. The stream's Māori name was originally Wai-Mapihi, but it was commonly called Te ...

, a suburb of Wellington City. He has recently moved to Melbourne, Australia, to take up the CEO role of Climate and Health Alliance (CAHA).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sapsford, Roland Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand politicians Politicians from Wellington City Unsuccessful candidates in the 2002 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2005 New Zealand general election