All seven New Zealand Green Party MPs and a delegation of at least 50 supporters and members will be attending the first ever gathering of green parties from around the world at the Australian parliament in Canberra this week.

The conference which runs from the 14 through 16 April will be attended by around 600 green party representatives from at least 60 different countries.

"Following the big success of the New Zealand Greens at the last election we feel it is really important to send a strong delegation to Canberra to show green parties from all around the world what they can achieve," said Green Party co-leader Rod Donald.

Mr Donald said that as the plight of planet earth and the future of the people who lived on it became increasingly dire, the role of green parties in national and international politics was becoming increasingly more relevent.

There are green parties in over 70 countries, many with parliamentary representation and at least seven formally part of a government.

"People can no longer ignore the social and ecological crises we collectively face and it is only the green movement that has the answers and the commitment to address these big picture problems," he said.

Some of the workshops being held at the conference include: climate change; denuclearisation; poverty, social justice and the Greens; Greens in government; genetic engineering and organics; Green trade and investment; global democracy and sustainable technology.

"These challenges require international solutions and a universal commitment to implement them locally," said Mr Donald. "The increasing role Greens are playing in national parliaments is now making this a reality for the first time."

Rod Donald said the New Zealand delegation was looking forward to talking strategy with their international counterparts and were particularly keen to discuss the role of Greens in government with those green parties who were coalition partners in the their countries.

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

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