Green LIGHT
Chlöe Swarbrick is a woman in demand. We meet in a café at Auckland’s St Kevin’s Arcade – her “centre of gravity” – where she knows all of the staff on a first-name basis and they know her. Throughout our time together, there’s a fairly constant stream of supporters who approach or wave to congratulate and thank her. Many utter her new post-election catchphrase: “We did it!”
“It”, of course, being Chlöe’s victorious bid for Auckland Central MP. She doesn’t seem to have slowed down since leaving the campaign trail – indeed, she won’t even slow down for coffee. She talks a million miles a minute, arms spread wide and hands flailing in gesture, plucking the right words out of the air. When she laughs, it’s loudly and freely. When she’s mad, she doesn’t mince words, admitting a tendency to be “too unguarded”.
She turns up in jeans and a T-shirt with armfuls of paperwork and a journal filled with frenzied thoughts and cluttered to-do lists. Her phone doesn’t go 30 seconds without a notification, but she never once checks it. That’s the kind of undivided attention barely received from my friends and family; I certainly didn’t expect it from a politician.
But that’s the thing about Chlöe – she’s not your average politician. She’s more
