Jeanette Mary Fitzsimons CNZM (née Gaston; 17 January 1945 – 5 March 2020) was a New Zealand politician and environmentalist.

[3] She studied French and music at the University of Auckland from 1962 to 1964, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and was considered a talented violinist.

[3] After teaching at her old school, Epsom Girls' Grammar, in 1966 and 1967,[1] Fitzsimons lived in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1968 to 1974, where she joined Friends of the Earth and the Environmental Defence Society.

To observers, it seemed that the Greens' chances of entering parliament were dependent on Fitzsimons' performance in Coromandel; in order to receive proportional representation, the party needed to either gain five percent of the national vote or win an electorate seat, and it appeared that the former option was unlikely.

[14] In her second term, Fitzsimons promoted bills to extend New Zealand's nuclear-free zone[15] and to reduce road traffic.

This was agreed to as part of a policy package negotiated by the Green Party in exchange for its undertaking not to oppose the Labour-led Government on matters of confidence and supply until the next parliamentary elections.

In 2013, she joined Greenpeace executive director Bunny McDiarmid on a ship which was protesting oil drilling off the coast of Raglan.

[27] She was a patron of the Soil & Health Association, and on the advisory board of the University of Otago Centre for Sustainability.

[29] In October 2008, respondents to a ONE News Colmar Brunton poll regarded Fitzsimons as the most trustworthy political party leader in New Zealand.

[30] In the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours, Fitzsimons was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for public services.

[2][3][32] In 1991, Fitzsimons and Parke bought land in the Kauaeranga Valley east of Thames at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula and established Pakaraka Farm.

[35][36][37] Politicians from across the political spectrum including her Green colleagues and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern paid tribute to her.