Greens leadership challenge: Teanau Tuiono doing a lot of thinking, James Shaw wants to know how to do better

There's still only one declared contender for James Shaw's old job as Greens co-leader, but one of his backbenchers confirmed on Wednesday that he's giving it a mull-over.

That's come as a bit of a surprise to Shaw, telling Newshub he wants to know how he can do better.

Green MP Teanau Tuiono has been doing a lot of thinking.

"I'm not ruling anything in, I'm not ruling anything out, I'm just kind of giving it a think and maybe you guys will stop chasing me around the hallways," he said to reporters on Wednesday.

Thinking about thinking about a punt at Shaw's old job as co-leader, he called a press conference to say he's got a bit more thinking to do.

"I guess where I'm landed at the moment is, what is would my participation mean in this process?"

That Shaw might have a battle on his hands came as a surprise to Shaw.

"To be honest with you, I've been in meetings all morning, so I didn't get a chance to engage with it. I know that Teanau is considering a run," he said. 

He's trying to see the good side of all this.

"I honestly think people just want what's best - not just for the Green Party - but for the country as a whole."

In a heartfelt message on Facebook to Greens members, Shaw said he'd found it hard to balance being a minister and co-leader and given the vote to oust him, he clearly hadn't quite nailed it.

He said he wanted to learn from this to be a better co-leader, a better MP and a better minister.

"What do you need that you're not getting?" he wants to ask members. "What are some ways that I can do things a bit differently."

Tuiono's pitch is that he's different to Shaw.

"We're different people. I really like the guy. We get on really, really well. But we're very different people, different upbringings."

He's also considering whether there should be a different cooperation agreement between the Greens and Labour.

"That's something that's come up with the membership as well."

But the Prime Minister says, nope, it's not changing

"It is an agreement that was formed between the leaders, but involved the parties as well, so that would be a very significant departure," Jacinda Ardern said.

The Greens' solo co-leader - a bit of an oxymoronic title - is staying out of it

"Everyone's allowed to consider being elected for the co-leader position by the members," said Marama Davidson. "That's not a mess, it's just a process."

A process that - from the outside - does look pretty messy.