Green Party deputy leader vows to tackle discrimination after completing cancer treatment

Hazel Chu was elected the Green Party's deputy leader in late January.

The new deputy leader of the Green Party says her decision to run just weeks after finishing treatment for cancer was "tough", but came from a desire for a more equal country.

Councillor Hazel Chu was diagnosed with breast cancer last summer and had surgery in September. She completed four weeks of radiation therapy before Christmas and was elected the party's deputy leader in late January.

Ms Chu told the Irish Examiner that while she had thought about not running, she was compelled by a number of issues.

"When you're sitting in a waiting room in St Vincent's waiting for radiotherapy and talking to people who are far worse than you and some far better than you, you feel really lucky.

"So there was a part of me that thought... would it not be easier to make sure my daughter grows up and everything is happy-go-lucky at home and look after my health? But then I think part of my problem is I looked at her and just apart from the climate element, there's also a huge issue when it comes to social justice and discrimination.

"At the moment, I'm not sure if the likes of my daughter will feel like she's growing up in an equal and fair society, if there are not people to push for an equal and fair society. And does that mean it's just me? No, it means a group of people. So I look at various parties pushing that anti-discrimination and pushing back on the far right, and I think we all need to do it.

"What can I do in terms of the party, in terms of the Green Movement, but in terms of all these other issues I care about (is) put your money where your mouth is and run for it. Is it hard? Yes, I'm not going to sugarcoat it and say it's not."

Green Party rebuild

Ms Chu, whose parents are from Hong Kong, was first elected as a councillor in 2019 and was the first candidate in the country elected in 2024 even as the Green Party lost more than half its councillors. She says she does not believe that a Green Party rebuild will take the same amount of time as it had between 2011 and 2020.

"The aim is to build back quicker.

"We're in a very different space for 2011 now in terms of climate change. We're in a different place. But in terms of society and where politics are, we're in a completely different place.

"So we can't go back to the 2011 space of let's plan for eight years or ten years, and do that kind of slow growth. I think it needs to be quicker. It needs to be more radical in terms of where we're pushing our agenda."

Ms Chu says that her party's gains on climate in government from 2020 to 2024 have been "completely washed away" by the current coalition.

"They've been greenwashing," she said.

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