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So, bye bye James Shaw; Valedictory Day today.\xa0

He is in the interesting position of having left behind something potentially quite substantive.\xa0

The Net Zero laws, we will be neutral by 2050. But then that\u2019s the problem isn't it? My bet is we wont.\xa0

So, what's your legacy when the big bit you left behind turns into dust?\xa0

Could be wrong of course, but as 2050 gets ever closer, the goal doesn\u2019t. In fact, we are moving in completely the wrong direction.\xa0

It's an idea and a series of polices that have been driven by good intentions but overtaken in ensuing years by cold hard reality.\xa0

He will mention it, I am sure, in his Valedictory today in the Parliament.\xa0

He will speak proudly of it, as well he might because the bit he leaves behind is the reputation that he was actually a Green MP in the true sense of the word as opposed to being like too many of the others; loud mouth protestors and reactionaries to the buzz cause of the day.\xa0

He also has the advantage of being a nice guy. You don\u2019t have to agree with him to get on with him.\xa0

But in totality you can't help but conclude he got hijacked by causes beyond his control.\xa0

The way they handled his co-leadership was shocking for a bloke who provided so much ballast to the party. They rewarded him with yet another of their wackjob hatchet attempts which culminated, if you remember, in him standing for the job unopposed because the idiots who drove it lacked any sort of planning or spine.\xa0

He also spent a lot of time explaining, or apologising, or defending the various versions of madness that passed for Green Party behaviour.\xa0

Turei to Golriz to Tana, a report we are still standing by for by the way, how many times was it suggested he was in the wrong party? But then as easy as that is to say, what would his party have been?\xa0

He is a good old fashioned environmentalist who came from the corporate world to try and make a bit of decent change and rarely lost his good sense and fine humour in doing so.\xa0

The Parliament has too much rabble these days, so his departure sadly tips the balance even further.\xa0

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