ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff
Green MP Eugenie Sage will step down at the next election.
Green Party MP Eugenie Sage has announced she will step down at next year’s election.
Writing on Facebook, Sage said it had been an “enormous privilege” being “a voice for nature and a fair society” for over a decade in Parliament.
Sage has been a Green Party list MP since 2011, serving as Minister of Conservation and Land Information and the Associate Minister for the Environment from 2017 to 2020.
She said it was too early to reflect on her time in Parliament, saying: “What continues to energise and inspire me is the vision for change.
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“I know there is some tremendous talent among those seeking to be Green candidates and I look forward to a bigger and stronger team of Green MPs post-election.”
Sage chairs the environment select committee and has also previously been the Green Party spokesperson for conservation, earthquake commission, emergency management, environment, forestry, land information and oceans and fisheries.
She is known for her advocacy and interest in trapping rats, stoats and possums, controlling weeds to help native plants and wildlife thrive, zero waste, pushing for better care of oceans and changing the way New Zealanders farm to avoid water pollution.
Sage said she had “some interesting holiday reading ahead” preparing for her next eight months of work before the election.
“There’s a lot to do.”
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Sage has represented the Green Party in Parliament since 2011, and before that was a regional councillor at Environment Canterbury and worked for Forest & Bird.
Sage was behind the introduction of an order paper to include an entrenchment provision in the Three Waters Bill, which caused political consternation last month.
The last-minute clause, voted through hastily by the Government and Green Party, was called “a real danger” to New Zealand’s constitution by a leading legal expert.
The change meant any future law change allowing public water assets to be sold would require a vote of 60% of Parliament or a successful public referendum.
The Government later dropped it, saying it was a mistake.
She came third in the 2020 election for the Banks Peninsula seat in Christchurch, increasing her candidate vote by 60%, despite campaigning actively for the party vote.
Prior to her parliamentary career she was an elected councillor for Environment Canterbury, and worked for Forest & Bird for 13 years, where she campaigned to protect the South Island High Country and West Coast beech and rimu forests.
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