Last resort
NATIONAL: The Green Party has ruled out talking to National until all other coalition options are exhausted.
The Green Party has ruled out talking to National until all other coalition options are exhausted.
During the past week there has been suggestion a so-called ‘‘teal deal’’ could be considered between National and the Greens.
Former National Prime Minister Jim Bolger weighed in at the weekend, saying the Greens had a responsibility to pick up the phone to National.
However, Greens leader James Shaw said all the talk of a teal deal was ‘‘noise’’.
He said those suggestions had not come directly from the leaders of the two parties, and were just speculation.
National leader Bill English and Shaw maintained if the other rang, they had a responsibility to listen, but the obligation didn’t go further than that.
Shaw said he was working on preparing to form a government that included Labour, the Greens, and presumably NZ First.
‘‘I said on election night that I think the numbers are there for a new government, and that’s what we’re working on.
‘‘So everything else, frankly, is noise and no signal.’’
Meanwhile, Labour leader Jacinda Ardern has stopped short of guaranteeing ministerial posts for the Greens if NZ First tries to cut them out.
But she has signalled the Greens’ voting strength should be respected and they should be treated on a roughly equal footing with NZ First, given their similar voting blocks.
‘‘We do need to respect the votes that the Greens bring to the table. Which just means plainly on the numbers we have a situation where both NZ First and Greens are bringing a fairly similar block of votes and we should treat both parties with respect in these negotiations,’’ Ardern said.
‘‘Just because the Greens have indicated where their support would go doesn’t mean we should disrespect the voter support that they bring.’’
Before more than 380,000 specials are declared on Saturday, NZ First has nine seats to the Greens seven. But in past elections specials have favoured the Greens and another seat for the party is seen as likely.
She said there were a range of different arrangements that could be struck with the Greens including ministers inside Cabinet, ministers outside Cabinet and a confidence and supply deal.
‘‘I have had it suggested to me that they can simply sit on the cross benches because they are easier to deal with. I’ve said that I don’t think that’s a fair way to treat their support.’’
Shaw said all the talk of a ‘‘teal deal’’ had been fed through proxies. ‘‘It’s all just PR and fluff, there’s no substance to it.’’
National environment spokesman Nick Smith also threw a bit of cold water on the talk when he was asked whether the Greens would want to take over his portfolio in a coalition deal.
‘‘The Greens have failed to recognise some of the progress that we’ve made on important issues,’’ Smith said.
Any decisions about a possible coalition was ‘‘well above [his] pay grade’’, however.
Ardern said Labour had started ‘‘pre-negotiations’’ with the Greens but there were things to square with both the Greens and NZ First. The real work would start after specials were counted.
Preparatory discussions have focused on how negotiations would work and the parties had been reviewing what policy areas they had in common, and what topics would need to be worked through.
But at this stage no formal discussions had taken place.
Shaw said he didn’t expect those negotiations to begin until after the special vote results – which accounted for about 15 per cent of the vote – were returned.
Even without extra seats delivered by the specials, Labour, the Greens and NZ First had the numbers to form a majority government, and that’s what Shaw expected to happen.