Garner says Greens are Labour’s little play thing

Duncan Garner writes:

The Greens’ chances of being in power still rely on Labour. Bugger that, but that’s the rough path they have chosen.

They have fully hitched their wagon to a struggling Labour locomotive.

If Labour gets in a position to govern then the Greens might have some influence. If they don’t, then the Greens are once again assigned to the oblivion benches again.

Damn, that must be frustrating. Why burn all that carbon in planes and taxis getting to Parliament if you can’t make a difference?

Yes, they’re a strong voice in opposition but surely they want to be in power one day – don’t they? But they’ve chosen to work only with Labour.

Apparently, National is evil, too Right-wing, doesn’t care about the environment, has made our rivers dirty and the list goes on. But I wonder what life would be like if they hadn’t thrown their lot in with just Labour.

What would a Blue-Green government look like? Imagine if the Greens had left the door open to prop up either of the big parties in office? Is Labour really that economically different from National?

Why couldn’t the Greens have been truly independent and said we’ll keep both the bastards honest and just fight for our principles and influence in any government we can be part of?

It would be great to have an independent Green party that was similiar to the Maori Party – we’ll work constructively with whichever party is in power, supporting them on supply and confidence in return for some big policy gains on the issues we think are most important.

When the Labour-Green memorandum of understanding to work together came out, Jesus wept and so did the centre-Left. Labour and Green voters went all weak at the knees.

All those voters thought enough had been done to govern and it was only a matter of time. But I thought it was a stupid deal that assigned the Greens as Labour’s Mini Me.

They closed off their options and became Labour’s little play thing.

The moment they said we will only support a Labour-led Government, they threw away any influence they had, and any ability to stop Winston blocking them from Government if he holds the balance of power.