This, she says, “is where organisation is still the big missing piece – organisation on the ground”. She points to Polanski’s success in boosting the British Greens’ membership, to the point where it has reportedly surpassed that of the centrist Liberal Democrats and even the “natural party of government”, the Conservatives. (On her trip, Swarbrick also met the two leading figures behind Your Party, Jeremy Corbyn and left-wing firebrand Zarah Sultana, but is unsurprisingly more guarded about those encounters, noting only that the nascent party’s internal fighting is “rough as guts”.)

In New Zealand as elsewhere, it tends to be centre-left Labour and Democratic parties that have the strongest ground game. So could the Greens really surpass them? “Over time, yes,” Swarbrick says. One central task is “building coalitions” with faith groups, community organisations and the union movement, although the latter’s historical ties to Labour means any relationship with the Greens “will look different”.

The task for politicians, as she sees it, is to “think beyond electoral cycles” and generate public trust by being less opportunistic. “People, when you talk to them on the ground, don’t just want politicians to turn up when it’s election year and times are easy and they’re cutting ribbons. They want you to turn up when they’re having a bad day and stuff is hard. That process of constant accountability – that is where you build trust.”