Russel Norman

Russel Norman (born 1967) is a New Zealand politician and environmentalist. He is a Member of Parliament and co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand alongside Jeanette Fitzsimons.

Early life

Dr. Norman was born in Brisbane, Australia, and came to New Zealand in 1997 to witness the red-green coalition that was the Alliance. He wrote his political science PhD thesis on the Alliance, and was active within the party editing its party newsletter.

Greens co-leader

After emigrating to New Zealand, he became involved in organic farming, and was active in the Auckland branch of the Green Party. Later, he worked as an assistant to Green MPs Sue Kedgley, Nandor Tanczos, and Keith Locke. He was a researcher for the party from 2002 to 2004 and was the national campaign manager prior to the 2005 election and the national Party Development Co-ordinator afterwards. Following the death of Rod Donald Norman put his name forward as a contender for the male co-leader position. Norman won the position at the 2006 AGM, beating Nandor Tanczos (MP), David Clendon and Mike Ward (former MP) in an STV vote by delegates from electorates around the country.

Election history

In the 2002 elections, Norman contested the Rimutaka electorate, where he placed fourth. He was ranked seventeenth on the Green Party list.

In the 2005 elections, he did not contest an electorate, but was ranked tenth on the Green Party list.

On June 27 2008 Norman was declared elected to parliament following the resignation of Nandor Tanczos [cite web |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5YvWAUKTW|archivedate=2008-06-29 |url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/4599482a6000.html |title=Greens co-leader now an MP |publisher=The Dominion Post |date=27 June 2008] ; Tanczos resigned after Mike Ward and Catherine Delahunty who were above Norman on the party list agreed to stand aside.

Norman contributes to the Greens' blog, [http://blog.greens.org.nz/ Frogblog] .

References

External links

* [http://www.greens.org.nz/people/RusselNorman.htm Candidate bio on official website]
* [http://greens.org.nz/searchdocs/PR9864.html Announcement of winning co-leadership]