NANDOR NO LONGER A GREENHORN MP

The disparaging digs that greet Green MP Nandor Tanczos when he rises to
speak in Parliament are less evident now than when he started out just over
a year ago.

He is less of a novelty, he is taking up some serious issues and the
Greens' justice spokesman appears to be taken more seriously.

The Rastafarian list member who accused MPs of being "drunk in charge of a
country" still feels hostility and contempt from some quarters.

"There are people who either won't acknowledge my presence when I'm around
or will seem to deliberately avoid a situation where they might have to say
hello," he says.

But that is the exception.

"After a year I'm feeling more comfortable. The language isn't so arcane
and strange to me. When we go through the legislative process I understand
more what we're actually doing.

"Earlier on, every time I stood up it would be, 'Oh, sell us some
cannabis,' or some stupid thing - the predictably pathetic and childish
stuff. But that's pretty much died away now."

Now he is enjoying the job so much that he wants to return for a second term.

"One term is really not long enough to become really effective. It would
feel like I was cheating those people who put me there to stand down after
one term."

One of the reasons he has started the year so chirpily is that his Clean
Slate Bill, a private member's measure, is due to be debated in a fortnight.

The bill would wipe out minor convictions of people who have not
re-offended for seven years if the sentence for the original offence was
less than six months' jail. Mr Tanczos is hopeful it will get at least to
the select committee stage, and he has the support of Justice Minister Phil
Goff to that point.

The only party that has so far pledged to vote against it is Act, which is
ironic as its leader, Richard Prebble, sponsored a similar bill when he was
a young Opposition Labour MP.

Mr Tanczos will be at Waikato University today, part of an orientation tour
of campuses to talk about the Clean Slate Bill, the role of the Greens in
the minority Government and, of course, the subject for which he is best
known: reviewing the cannabis laws.

He will spend some time on the health select committee next month as it
begins hearing submissions on the legal status of marijuana, as well as its
health effects.

He protests that he is much misunderstood and says that school principals
who keep him out of their assembly halls don't understand his message.

Greens advocate "personal use without penalty" for people aged over 18.

"If I am the sort of hero figure that some of them seem to think I am, then
rather than those kids hearing that 'Nandor says everyone should smoke pot'
... if they could hear me speak, I'm saying, 'You shouldn't even make the
decision about whether you want to smoke or not till you're 18 because you
want to get through your teenage years without getting into these kinds of
things'."

Parliament can be disorienting for a Green. "It's difficult to eat good
food, get enough sleep. I'm stuck in my office on the 15th floor with air
conditioning and I can't open the windows."

Keeping a miniature vegetable garden in his office keeps Mr Tanczos in
touch with nature.

"Just to get my bare feet on the ground doesn't happen that often."