Greens under pressure

More high-profile political figures are getting behind the idea of a NationalGreen government, including a former Greens co-leader.

As the country waits for negotiations on a new Government to begin, the public debate about a blue-green coalition continues to rage on.

Former National Prime Minister Jim Bolger is the latest to urge the Greens to consider talks with National.

Bolger, who led negotiations with New Zealand First in 1996, told TVNZ that the Greens had a responsibility to negotiate with National if they wanted to advance their goal of a clean, green New Zealand.

“If they’re in the political mix and campaigned to have an influence on the Government, then they should, as another small party, talk to both sides.”

Bolger said most New Zealanders shared the Green Party’s goals of a cleaner, greener New Zealand and National could be persuaded to move closer to its position on climate change and cleaning up rivers.

Until now, the people urging the Greens to consider talks with National have come from outside the party.

That includes senior National ministers who have floated the idea of a National-Green coalition in a bid to strengthen their hand in talks with NZ First leader Winston Peters.

But a former Green MP, Nandor Tanczos, has joined the crowd, saying that a coalition with National should be an option — but only in future elections.

He said it would be “political suicide” to go with National this year because it would be a betrayal of Green voters who were told this would not occur. It was also practic- ally impossible because of the party’s requirement for any coalition deal to be backed in a vote by 75 per cent of members.

But unless the party opened the door to National in future elections it would “continue to play out the dynamic of this election over and over”, Tanczos said.

“We may be mighty in opposition, but we will always be puny in coalition until we stop relying on discontented Labour voters for support.”

Green Party leader James Shaw has not ruled out talking to National about forming a Government, but has said that his party campaigned on changing the Government and many of National’s policies were “incongruous” to Green values.

There are some areas where National and Greens broadly have common goals, in particular on water quality, protecting biodiversity, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It is the pace and methods for achieving these goals where they differ.