Let’s see if marriage of convenience Peters out

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, or so it goes. Of course, only up to the point when said friend becomes the barrier to taking down the enemy.

The Green Party appears to be at peace with that option. And they may well end up being discarded by Labour a fourth time, but they’ve got little choice.

In fact, Labour’s agreement to formalise the relationship between the two biggest parties on the left is a good deal for the Greens.

Less so for Labour, but on balance, still positive.

The Greens are fed up with being in opposition, and the only way they’ve got a chance at government is if they help push Labour across the line.

Labour needs all the help it can get. And following on from the shambles that was David Cunliffe’s 2014 election campaign, the formal partnership between the two was perhaps even necessary to clarify that a coordinated left bloc was indeed, still a thing.

But that won’t stop Labour making the cold decision to cull, if NZ First leader Winston Peters demanded it.

And if Peters is in the position to choose the Government in 2017, he won’t make it easy for the Greens.

Labour leader Andrew Little and Green Party co-leader James Shaw were at pains not to mention ‘‘NZ First’’ yesterday.

They delivered tub-thumping keynote speeches in a joint speaking slot at the Green Party annual conference. The platitudes and rhetoric rained down hard and fast; we have a vision, change is coming, we both want to tackle the tough problems, we’re different parties.

But there was no mention of any specific policies.

Perhaps the most candid comments made since the parties’ formal alliance were by co-leader

For now, National is the only enemy.

Metiria Turei to Timaru Girl’s High School on Friday.

‘‘I have a bad attitude to Labour,’’ she said frankly. ‘‘Labour brought in economic reforms that made my family homeless in the 90s.’’

Of course, time has marched on since then, and the parties have much in common. But the arrangement could easily splinter, particularly when it comes to Labour’s hunger for the government benches, at probably any cost.

So will people buy the LabourGreen alternative government, given all bets are off on election day? We’ll only know when the votes are counted.

But for now, National is the only enemy. And this union – like many marriages of convenience – will remain effusively tight, right until the Peters-shaped bomb goes off.