It's about to get messy in the Greens

Green co-leaders James Shaw and Metiria Turei (Getty)
Green co-leaders James Shaw and Metiria Turei (Getty)

OPINION: There's a storm brewing in the Greens.

A tornado that'll rip out fresh Green seedlings, tear limbs from old Green forest giants, leaving Green debris everywhere.

It'll be like a lawnmower heading straight into the community garden, slicing through the GE-free corn, mulching the spray-free kale, and knocking over the worm farm.

The Greens will negotiate the party's list at a conference this Sunday.

It'll be an organic compost fight.

A fight to get the recycling out on time.

A fight to offset the most carbon.

It will be a showdown between the old guard and the new guard.

It means the Kennedy Grahams and Denise Roches of the party will scrap it out with the Chlöe Swarbricks and Hayley Holts.

Current MPs will defend their list placings to the death, while the new sprouts with high profiles will attack to get an electable ranking.

The party really is at a crossroads.

Guaranteed, there will be current MPs who'll be shown the road to Siberia, while those who can refresh the party will be shown the road to Wellington.

Getting the balance right is hugely important - enough to keep the older, tribal Green voters happy, but enough to lure young voters with new faces and fresh ideas.

Young up-and-comers like Iranian refugee Golriz Ghahraman, and multi-talented dancer/snowboarder/broadcaster Hayley Holt were front and centre at the Labour-Greens State of the Nation speech . If they're not given good list spots, that will seem like a misleading publicity stunt.

So which MPs should be worried? Catherine Delahunty and Steffan Browning have seen the writing on the wall and are already leaving. Others on thin ice are David Clendon, Denise Roche, and newcomer Barry Coates. What have they achieved? Why should they stay?

It will be tough for the Greens, and feelings will be hurt. But look at it this way: it's not a bad problem having lots of good, young people wanting to stand for your party.

Newshub.