frogblog

John Armstrong, the Herald’s political correspondent, devotes his column today (offline) to the Greens and its meeting with business. He argues that the Greens have changed in recent times:

Though the Greens’ policy remains fairly uncompromising, Tuesday’s meeting was another example of the party shedding its image of inflexibility, a process which has been under way since last year’s decision to go into the election with a cast-iron guarantee to back a Labour-led Government.

The Greens behaved impeccably during the election campaign, allowing Helen Clark to train her guns on National without distraction on her left flank.

That may have been the difference in Labour narrowly winning the most votes - and therefore first rights to form the new Government when the official election result is declared today.

Moreover, this time the Greens come to the post-election negotiating table devoid of non-negotiable bottom lines, although they will insist on New Zealand’s GM-free status being maintained. That proviso is included in a 12-point list of policy “highlights” they want actioned over the next three years.

The list includes raising the minimum wage from $9.50 to $12 an hour. That irks business big-time. Although the list is not definitive in terms of what the Greens want from Labour as a price from their support, it contains little else upsetting to business.

I don’t agree with all of this, but as always Armstrong is one of our more astute political commentators. Certainly, Labour’s ability to convey during the campaign the impression that it had friends in Parliament with which it could form a stable government was an important factor in its victory.

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