The Green Party constitution no longer requires a male co-leader, instead requiring one woman and one person of any gender, plus a requirement that one must be Māori.
Green party co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
The finer details of the review of the party's constitution are yet to be revealed after the changes were voted in by party members at a special meeting over the weekend.
Co-leader Marama Davidson this afternoon said they were pleased with the changes which focused on a commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
"And proud that the party, the members, have voted in support of constitutional change which upholds Te Tiriti, which centres a framework on Te Tiriti, and far more inclusive representation including that leadership.
"The whole point though is about better representation, more inclusive expectations for leadership and upholding Te Tiriti."
She said her fellow co-leader James Shaw's position was not at risk.
"No. Like I've just said both co-leader roles are currently filled, currently in place, and that remains."
Shaw himself said he was keen to continue leading the party for as long as he could.
"I said when I took on the leadership in the first place back in 2015 that I wanted to lead the Green Party into government for the first time, and then safely out the other side.
"I haven't made any decisions about what 'the other side' looks like, I can't even tell you when it's going to be, but I hope it's a long way off."
He said the constitution changes had been needed for a long time, because although Te Tiriti had been included in its preamble, it had not been "operationalised".
"The constitution that we had frankly had become a bit of a bugger's muddle, I mean it was about 30 years old and it had sort of been added to and so on without a substantial review in a very long time so the whole thing did need an overhaul.
"The original constitution was drafted in 1990 - I know, I was there - and it seemed pretty progressive at the time and we got a lot of hassles for it at the time but since then the world has moved on and kind of caught up with us and I hope the rest of the world moves on and catches up with us on this one as well."
The party has had a Māori co-leader for 15 years even without the new rules, and Shaw said it would not exclude Pākehā men like him.
"This doesn't exclude men who are Pākehā, I'm going to continue in my post for as long as people will continue electing me to be in that post."
University of Auckland public policy lecturer Lara Greaves (Ngāti Kuri, Ngāpuhi) told Midday Report the move seemed like a logical next step for the party.
"This kind of just aligns with their values and the direction the party's heading in."
"I can see that this is a really important symbolic step for them to go in that direction of trying to pull more of the Māori vote ... I can see they're more moving in that 'yes we are pro-Te Tiriti, we're pro-co-governance, we're pro-Māori' direction."
"They still don't have a huge amount of Māori representation in the party, and actually there've been sort of mixed views about their inclusion of Māori generally, [former leader] Metiria Turei's talked about that in the past."
Greaves said it could also pave the way for a change in leadership, with suggestions someone like Chloe Swarbrick could be better in the role, and there had been disquiet about Shaw not aligning so well with some of the party's kaupapa.
"They've had low levels of men over the past little while so I think it makes sense to remove that requirement given that you're kind of pulling from a broader talent pool when you're looking at women ... they've been majority women for quite some time."
Shaw said he had seen of a leadership contest at the party's last annual meeting and won with about 97 percent of the vote, so was "quietly confident" of remaining in the role, but he hoped the move would send the message that the Green Party stood for women's leadership in Parliament.
He said he was proud of his and Davidson's record having been the first party in New Zealand's history to increase its support as a government support party.
"The assumption is that we'll win the next election and I'd like to take us through the next government as well."