Greens and National up a tree ….

Frog blogs:

In another success story for MMP, Green MP Catherine Delahunty today announced a joint initiative with the National Party to clean up New Zealand’s most toxic site — Te Aroha’s Tui Mine.

The abandoned, environment-polluting mine has long been known as an issue, and decades later something is finally been done about it.

I’m always a fan of political parties working together on issues they agree on.

The Leaders of the National Party and Green Party agreed to include toxic site management work in their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which also includes home insulation, the New Zealand Cycleway, natural health products, and a pilot scheme to better protect forests and wildlife from pests. The toxic management addition to the MoU was signed by Environment Minister Nick Smith and Catherine Delahunty, the Green Party’s Spokesperson for the Environment (Toxics).

Smart positioning by the Greens. As they climb to 10% in the latest poll, they show they can work across the spectrum to get things done. So if left wing voters decide a National Government re-election is inevitable, then more left wing voters may defect to Greens as their best way to influence the Giovernment.