Greens get hard

It is good to see the Greens starting to put their own party’s interests first rather than continue on as Charlie Brown to Labour’s Lucy. The last two elections have seen Labour spurn the Greens in favour of NZ First or United Future.

The Green Party turned on its Labour ally yesterday, describing the Government’s softening on emissions trading as “disgusting” and indicating it was ready to deal with either of the major parties after the election.

Now let no one get excited by this. If the Greens can decide who gets to form a Government, they will always go with Labour. But it does represent an opportunity for both National and Greens to see if they could negotiate a limited agreement – maybe to abstain on confidence and supply in return for some policy wins.

As Labour and Greens occupy somewhat similar space, the Greens struggle to get recognition for some of its policy agenda, as people think Labour will probably have done it anyway. In theory they could do better with National, as any policy agreement would arguably be stuff that National was unlikely to do by itself.

Again this does not mean that the Greens will ever not put Labour in office, over National, if they have the choice. But if National can govern without the Greens – yet is willing to negotiate an agreement – there could be an opportunity to make it a win-win. The Greens get more respect and credit for their achievements than they do with Labour, and National gets to have a greener agenda.