Winston now says not Thursday

Few are surprised that Winston has now said there won’t be a decision on Thursday.

What is more surprising is the weirdness of the negotiations on the left. We’re meant to believe that Labour, Greens and NZ First can all work together to support a stable Government yet NZ First is refusing to even be in the same room as the Greens.

Also any deal between Labour and NZ First would need the support of the Greens on confidence and supply which means if he goes with Labour you won’t actually have an agreed deal until the Greens sign off on it. And the Greens caucus can’t do that – it has to go to an SGM with 75% of delegates backing it.

Maybe Winston has just calculated the Greens are powerless and that they have to support whatever deal he does with Labour. And he is right. But they only have to support them on supply and confidence. Every piece of legislation will needs the Greens to agree on.

Select committee membership tends to be proportional to MP numbers. A Labour/NZ First Government will have 55 seats while National/NZ First would have 65 seats.

There are 96 select committee spots over 12 committees. The number of slots per party will be:

• National 45
• Labour 37
• NZ First 7
• Greens 6
• ACT 1

So a Labour/NZ First Government will at best be tied on most select committees and sometimes be in the minority. This would make legislation difficult to progress.