Sad to hear about the death of Rod Donald in the weekend.

Earlier in the year, during the election campaign, I spoke at a couple of meetings for the Alliance Party where he was speaking for the Greens. He tried to sign me up at one event, which I declined. Although I agree with many Green policies, I think to effect real change you need a broad-based socialist party that gets working class people involved. I don’t feel the Green Party is that vehicle; also I don’t like the hippy, new age element that seems to come to the fore in the activist base (having said that, I count some of those hippies as friends – on a purely individual level!)

However, that political difference aside, Rod was one of the most effective advocates of the Green philosophy, and seemed to have a strong grasp and interest in the economic issues that the Greens needed. Personally he seemed like a genuine bloke with a real energy about him. A real loss to the progressive side of NZ politics.