So much for no surprises

Barry Soper writes:

As a first anniversary gift, the Greens breached their Memorandum of Understanding on Budget Day by voting with the Government it has pledged to replace.

Labour leader Andrew Little told media he only knew the Greens were crossing sides when they started voting.

The MoU commits both parties to treat each other with integrity and openness, with a no surprises policy which means they give each other prior notice and the details of any major announcements and speeches.

Not telling your MOU partner that you are voting for the centre-piece of the Government’s Budget seems a rather big thing to overlook.

Imagine if there is a Labour, Greens and NZ First Government – wonderful chaos.

The deal with Labour is the Greens’ biggest mistake.

They may think their association could attract some Labour votes for them – but if that’s their thinking, they misunderstand the tribal nature of that party’s followers.

If they were free agents they could easily have hooked up with National, which given their Budget vote, they don’t loathe as much as Labour does.

By saying they will only back a Labour Government, they have given all the power to Peters. And in return he will try and lock them out if he can.