TGIF, the one tie that doesn’t bind
NZ First will hold an all day jointcaucus and board meeting on Monday to decide which party to give its support to.
Party leader Winston Peters – wearing a tie emblazoned with the acronym ‘‘TGIF’’ – told media yesterday that the board members would be flying in to Wellington from all over the country tomorrow night and Monday morning.
‘‘TGIF stands for ‘Thank God It’s Friday’,’’ he quipped.
His party could put either National or Labour in power, although Labour would also need the support of the Green Party. While formal negotiations with the two parties had wrapped up, Peters said he was still in contact with both to nail down fiscal and policy issues.
‘‘We have to get the policy thing cleared up first, and also an understanding of the fiscals. We’ve been through their budgets and our own and we’ve got to make sure that we do it on the figures we’ve agreed upon.’’
There would be ‘‘constant communications’’ between the parties.
Yesterday, NZ First held an allday caucus meeting.
Peters said his board members had hotels booked in case the meeting went into the night.
However, this did not mean that a final decision would necessarily be made public on Monday.
‘‘It’s extraordinarily difficult to meet timelines, particularly on this matter that if you are jamming a timeline against a public statement of a date, and you compromise the quality of your decision, that would not be a very good idea but we know time is of the essence.’’
He said his comments about the decision being ready ‘‘by the end of next week’’ had been ‘‘seriously misconstrued’’ – he meant it would likely be far sooner than that.
However, Peters was keen to get the decision announced publicly as soon as possible. ‘‘The quicker we make it the less the chances are of it being leaked.’’
Earlier, Peters had told media he had a ‘‘serious comprehensive dossier’’ from both parties to take to his caucus and board, promising that a new Government would be decided by next Friday.
He has already missed his first self-imposed deadline of Thursday, or ‘‘Writ Day’’.
Green Party co-leader James Shaw said he had a standing conference call booked with party delegates for every day, so they would be ready to approve the decision as soon as it was ready.
Negotiations with Labour had mostly finished but there were still some small things to finalise, he added. ‘‘There’s still bits and pieces that we need to tidy up. We’re nearing the end stages.’’
Shaw was still keen on a full coalition arrangement with all three political parties inside Cabinet.
Labour leader Jacinda Ardern did not answer questions about what steps her party would go through next, other than to say ‘‘we have our own process’’.
‘‘Overall, this has been a good process that has been followed.’’
New NZ First MP Shane Jones said the amount of time taken to make the decision was reasonable.
Finance Minister Steven Joyce would not comment on the content of the meetings or the timeline yesterday.