Focusing the mind

The hope on the left at the moment is that Labour will form a backup agreement with the Greens, allowing them to maintain confidence and supply and thus stay in government. The problem is that while Rod Donald has said that keeping National out of power focused the mind, a ban on commercial release of GMOs is still a bottom line for the party - which probably won't wash with Labour (or the electorate as a whole).

However, I think National has just given the Greens an even sharper focus, by threatening a sacred cow even more important than GE: our nuclear-free policy.

As a Green supporter, I think that this, more than anything else, makes a deal with Labour imperitive. An election now will hand the government benches to National, resulting not only in a repeal of the nuclear-ship ban, but also withdrawl from Kyoto, gutting the RMA, allowing open-cast mining and environmentally destructive development in conservation areas, a rollback of the last six years of progressive social legislation, and, in all likelihood, opening the floodgates to GE. We have to prevent this. If it means swallowing our pride and working with the government, then so be it. Labour, for all its flaws, is far more friendly to our goals than Don Brash.

What should a deal look like? It's probably best not to be seen to be too opportunistic, and with only fourteen months till the next election, it's too late for major policy changes anyway. And if United Future is also to continue supporting the government, then a deal must also be fair to them. Peter Dunne got one big policy item: a families commission. The Greens should push for the same: one decent policy payoff (and greater backroom influence, obviously). A universal student allowance, or a big dollop of cash to fund railways and public transport in Auckland would fit the bill nicely, and both have the advantage of also being popular with the centrist parties (and therefore, one would hope, with "middle New Zealand").

While it seems like selling out cheaply, I think the important thing at the moment is to buy time to ensure that the left-bloc in Parliament (Labour, the Greens and the Progressive Coalition) continues to hold 51% of the vote after the next election - because if it doesn't, then all the progress of the last five years, and our anti-nuclear policy, will be as dust.