July 12, 2011 2:00pm by David Farrar

A Labour-Green coalition

Labour has opened the door to a formal coalition with the Greens if it wins the election.

The Greens have never been in Government and were not wanted by the last Labour Government, but party leader Phil Goff said today that would change.

“I’d anticipate in the Labour-led government that the leaders of the Green Party, which would be a coalition partner, would have ministerial positions,” he told reporters.

“I think it’s premature to start talking about what positions those may be.”

This is after Russel Norman said he expects to be at least Associate Finance Minister in a Labour-led Government.

There is no doubt that if there is a Labour-led Government, there will be a coalition with the Greens. Labour snubbed the Greens in 1999, 2002 and 2005 but they had other options then.

In 2011, Labour plus Winston plus Hone just won’t be enough to be able to govern. They need the Greens.

If the Greens get 10 MPs, then they would be 1/6th of the Government caucus, and they could reasonably expect to have four Ministers. They’d be idiots to accept just the co-leaders becoming Ministers as Goff suggested.

I would have thought Kevin Hague would be next in line to be a Minister, followed by Kennedy Graham. Gender balance requirements though might mean Catherine Delahunty would be their fourth Minister.