Greens win a record 14 seats in New Zealand parliament

In a breakthrough election that saw the Greens win 11.06% of the party vote, their highest percentage ever, the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand won 14 seats in New Zealand's 121 seat parliament, up from 6.72% of the votes and nine seats in 2008. The 14 Green members of parliament include party co-leaders and returning MPs Metiria Turei and Russel Norman, as well as six new MPs including Mojo Mathers, who is the nation's first-ever deaf MP and thus will create incentives for the parliament to be accessible in unprecedented ways.

The Greens ran on a campaign platform lauding their achievements in the last legislative session, as well as a commitment going forward to remove 100,000 children out of poverty by 2014, to clean up New Zealand's rivers and lakes, and to create 100,000 Green jobs for New Zealanders.

With their increased delegation, the Greens in Parliament now will have the advantage of being able to cover every Select Committee, and Greens MPs will each be able to focus more strongly on a smaller number of spokesperson roles.