“Good evening. Today has been a strange day, I’m sure we can all recognise that. I’m not gonna tip toe around anything: what we have seen from the former Prime Minister is nothing short of detestable, inexcusable, and totally unjustifiable. The former Prime Minister has blindsided myself, the Green Party, the government he led, and the entire nation- and most importantly, the electorate of Te Pōti Māori.”

“I must say, AnswerMeNow1 needs to come clean to the public. His arguments in his unhinged press conference did not justify his surprise jump to a party who can only be described as the Green Party’s ideological nemesis. He has accused TOP of advocating “ruthlessly” for neoliberal policies, which is quite clearly false. I think it’s also quite a rich accusation when not once did AMN, as Prime Minister even, ever criticise or oppose any of TOP’s policies on the campaign, in the Green party, or even in the government he led. That is partly why today’s actions have come as quite a shock. This is a government that has operated on the principle of consensus. Not one policy advocated for by this government has or add the opposition of any one cabinet member, including and especially the Prime Minister. If AMN had any problem with any government policy, he had the right, and he knew he had the right, to express his views, and then allow the government to come to a decision that everyone is happy with, or at least does not oppose. Therefore, AMN had no opposition signalled to any government policy, or any TOP policy this government was implementing.”

“He has claimed it was “excruciating” dealing with United Future, citing Kingethan’s lengthy career in the last two governments. What credibility has this claim from a man who in term 2, formed an opposition coalition with ACT and the National Party- of which Kingethan was deputy leader at the time. What credibility has this claim from a man who has just joined New Zealand First, a party which led the most destructive reforms to our social services and our justice system whilst in coalition with the National Party? A politician as successful as AMN could not believe in such a hypocritical and contradictory argument, and for that reason it is clearly untrue.”

“I am most sympathetic for the electorate of Te Pōti Māori. They did not vote for New Zealand First, a party that makes Don Brash look like a member of the Black Panther Party. They voted for a party that fights for tino rangatiratanga- and yet now they have an MP from a party that wants to abolish that very electorate. For that reason, the voters of Te Pōti Māori should be given the opportunity to have their say. The disgraced member for Te Pōti Māori should follow the lead of honourable politicians such as Tariana Turia, Hone Harawira, and One Nation, who all resigned to face the electorate when they switched parties- and these were all members who switched to similar parties out of principle, let along ideological opposites for no discernible reason. Te Pōti Māori deserves to have a representative that they chose, with the policy platform they elected. AnswerMeNow1 should do the honourable thing, the principled thing, and face the electorate immediately.”

“After his resignation from the Green Party, evidence has arisen that after the last election, AMN actively and secretly campaigned for a deal with New Zealand First and for my resignation from the party. It is shocking, and personally hurtful, that a co-leader that I trusted would intentionally lobby members to oppose the perfectly fine TOP deal in favour of the NZF deal, something which I loudly told everyone would directly result in my resignation from the party, because I stand for Green Party principles. When I made that promise, AMN went and privately negotiated with Triangle- who he seems to have some hatred of now- to provide that 1 seat majority. When Triangle told me about it, AMN tried to shift the blame on Winston Wilhelmus. It is disappointing that for the last few months, AMN has been waging a secret war against me, failing to ever say it to my face. This was a person who I trusted, who I considered my friend. On the balance of probabilities, we can also be sure that AMN was responsible for leaking internal Green Party discussions to New Zealand First, and likely also key election strategies. That is a direct attack against the party. It was a mistake to ever allow him to be Prime Minister, or even the co-leader of the Green Party.”

“Unlike the ex-Prime Minister, who seems to be modelling his career after Mark Latham on fast-forward, this government maintains our commitment to te Tiriti o Waitangi, maintains the importance of human rights, and thus opposes the return of the barbaric death penalty, maintains our aroha and respect for our trans and gender diverse communities, maintains our support for immigrants and the huge benefits they gift Aotearoa New Zealand, maintains our commitment to providing strong social support systems- something very important to me, which New Zealand First successfully tried to rip apart-, maintains our opposition to needless and thoughtless military expansion, and continues to stand for the vulnerable no matter what.”

“I will, unlike my former colleague, continue standing for all of the 5 key points in the Green Party charter, not just one. We are a party that recognises te Tiriti o Waitangi as the founding document of Aotearoa New Zealand, recognising Māori as tangata whenua. We are a party that is committed to ecological wisdom, recognising that unlimited material growth is impossible in the finite natural world that humans are a part of. We are a party that is committed to social justice, fighting for the just distribution of social and natural resources both globally and locally. We are a party that is committed to appropriate decision making, and that includes the consensus model of decision making that this government is committed to. And we are party that is committed to non-violence and peace. That is what the Green Party has always stood for, and will continue standing for. All five of these points.”

“With that, it is obvious that despite the loss of AnswerMeNow1 and KilroyNZ, this government will continue. We are blessed to be joined by the Honourable Please_Dont_Yell, who has come back to the Labour Party. It was a pleasure working with him in the first two terms under the Labour Government and the First Greens Government, and it will be a pleasure working with him again.”

“This government maintains the support of over half the country, and maintains the support of over half of parliament. We won’t let such treachery and greed get in the way of delivering the transformational change for Aotearoa New Zealand we were elected to do. With that, cabinet has agreed that I will assume the position of Prime Minister. It is not an obligation I take lightly, and I am tentative to take this demanding role once more. But the challenges New Zealand face are too huge for me to sit it out. Given I am no Muldoonist, my good friend and colleague silicon_based_life will be taking the role of Minister of Finance. We have already worked closely together on budgetary matters in our roles of Finance Minister and Associate Finance Minister for Revenue, and no doubt that close relationship on these topics will continue in our new roles. I can also announce, now as Prime Minister, that my long-term ally and friend Laichar will pick up the Culture portfolio, a responsibility of which I have full confidence in him to meet, and really excel in. We cannot live dwelling on the past. The rot has been cauterised, whether we intended for it to be or not, and we will continue forward, united, for the benefit of all of Aotearoa. Thank you.”