/u/imnofox and /u/uncookedmeatloaf take the stage, as the speech is fed live on TVNZ to millions of homes

"For the last 20 years, the Greens have been seen as radical outliers. We've been told that to be 'electable', we have to be moderate or middle-of-the-road. But we led the last government without throwing any one of our values. We know that our members and supporters want us to be strong and outspoken. Because the challenges New Zealand face aren't small challenges. They are huge challenges, and we need bold vision to overcome them, and we have that bold vision.

"We won the argument on climate change. We have fought for Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We won the debate on cannabis. The Greens have always been ten to twenty steps ahead. Heck, the National party seems to be walking backwards!"

the crowd laughed

"When we said that house prices needed to come down, we were right. Now everyone agrees. When we said that river pollution had to stop and cow numbers needed to be reduced, we were laughed at, but we were right. Now everyone agrees. When we said cannabis needs to be treated like a health issue and prohibition needed to end, we were seen as radical hippies, but we were right. Now everyone agrees, and the law recognises that fact."

"There's no question about our record. We have always been there first, speaking truth to power. It's what good government does. It's what strong leadership means. It's the spirit or representative democracy."

"Voters want to be able to trust their government and their politicians. They want their representatives to do what's right, even if it's hard. And that is exactly what we did last term, and the term before that, and the terms before that as well. We refuse to let the expectations of the establishment parties stop us from doing what is necessary for Aotearoa New Zealand."

"The reality is that without a strong Green Party, we are stuck with a ACT led National government, maybe even supported by UnitedFuture, who seems to have awoken from the slumber since the early 1800s. That is not acceptable to the Greens. It's time to end neoliberalism, not entrench it further. It's time to fight for social change. It's time to end poverty. It's time to save the goddamn planet. Because we are all entitled to a fucking planet, far more so than greedy elites deserve a few more Aston fucking Martins."

"Without the Greens at the table, the reality is that there is nobody there to represent our environment or our most vulnerable New Zealanders. Under the last National-ACT government, we had to rely on the supreme court to protect our beautiful conservation land from being flooded by the Ruataniwha Dam because our Prime Minister refused to. A party that doesn't care about the courts, the local people, or the land."

"We ought to ask the 40,000 homeless New Zealanders who National and ACT deny exist, or the 200,000 kids in poverty or the 15 families this winter who will bury a child who died because their damp home made them sick just one time too many! We can't allow this to continue. And we aren't."

"It's time to end poverty once and for all. We have the means to do it. The question is whether or not we choose to do it. And we do. The Greens were the first party to ever make any notable positive reforms to the welfare system since the great socialist stalwart Michael Joseph Savage created it so many years ago. We increased benefits by 20%, not because we enjoy throwing out money, but because we believe everyone deserves enough to live."

"We heard the stories of mothers forced into sex work that they didn't want to have to do just to feed their own children. We heard the stories of parents forced to sacrifice their own basic needs to ensure their children had shoes to walk to school in. We heard the stories of the thousands of men and women who felt degraded and helpless at the hands of the system. Who has to decide which bill was least important, at the risk of losing power or losing accommodation, just to get food in the fridge."

"I know that New Zealanders care. New Zealanders are compassionate. We believe in fairness. We believe in a good quality of life. It's the kiwi dream we've all lived for. And everyone deserves that dream."

"We badly need to build more affordable housing and more state housing to combat the giant housing crisis this nation faces. While the National Party campaigns on selling off our state houses, the Greens are committed to building more to actually meet the demand of our most vulnerable. What is selling our state houses at 'below market rate' but taking from the poorest to sell it to the middle class you can afford it? We cannot let these fools sell everything that's not nailed down. We can't."

"We can't let that lot simply cut environmental protections for the sake of short term profit at the expense of our planet. We can't let them cut funding to health, to education, to welfare- and don't get me started on superannuation. Hand the yellow and blue team a pair of scissors and they'll run around the parliamentary precinct with their blades slashing. Their mothers must've never taught them not to run with scissors."

"They want to revert our increases to the benefit, and the want to do the same to the pension. The pension! We had elderly women living by themselves in caravans because they simply couldn't afford the rent. They lived in a tiny metal cold box at a shitty campground all because those governments saw them, these elderly pensioners, as economic burdens. Economic burdens! After the years upon years these seniors had served this country, and the opposition wants to return to elderly living in caravans in paddocks because that's all they can afford. And their slashes to super don't stop there! No! They even want to raise the age, depriving the elderly of the pension they have earned over their lifetime of service to the nation and our communities, simply because the opposition doesn't want to spend it. It's disgraceful!"

"Are you on the side of those who squeeze money out of mental health services while young people take their own lives in despair? On the side of oil companies who drill in our oceans, while the Maui’s dolphin goes extinct before our eyes? On the side of those who use poverty as a weapon against solo mums while children live in cockroach-infested boarding houses? Or are you on the side of the people who just want somewhere decent and affordable to live? The people who just want their kids to stop being so sick? The people who just want eels back in their clean river and the right to be heard?"

"If you really want every family to live in a warm, dry home, to end poverty and deprivation in Aotearoa, if you want te Tiriti respected, if you want our rivers cleaned up and urgent action on climate change then give us your two votes, and work with us to change governance in Aotearoa New Zealand for the better!"

a loud round of applause is gifted

"Strengthen our arm. Give us the power to do what's right for this nation. We will continue to fight for Aotearoa, for the plants and animals of Aotearoa, and for the people of Aotearoa! Together!"

"Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou, kia ora!"

the deafening applause reverberates off of the walls in the Auckland Town Hall. There was an uplifting the mood in the air, as if they were on the cusp of something great