KEY POINTS:
Independent MP Gordon Copeland says he wants to be thought of as the 49th member of the National Party caucus.
Mr Copeland has given the National Party his proxy vote, meaning he will vote with National on legislation.
However, he will still support the Labour Government on confidence
and supply.
Last month, Mr Copeland quit United Future saying he would form his own Future New Zealand party. He left the party over the child discipline bill which United Future leader Peter Dunne supported.
At the time Mr Copeland said he would support the Government on confidence and supply, and vote on a case-by-case basis on legislation.
Now, he has absolved all decision-making on legislation to National.
"I wanted to send a strong signal that for the duration of this Parliament I'd like to be seen, as it were, as the 49th member of the National Party caucus," Mr Copeland told reporters.
He was also sending a signal that if his Future New Zealand party was in Parliament after next year's election, "we will rule out working with a Labour-led Government and our preference would be to work with a John Key National Government".
Mr Copeland said he felt he had a "moral obligation" to continue with his confidence and supply agreement with Labour "because there are still a number of United Future policy wins in that agreement which are to be delivered which I personally had a very large involvement in".
His change in position had come after "some interesting negotiations".
He had approached National but had also discussed giving his proxy vote to United Future and Labour, he said.
Told that people around Parliament were starting to refer to him as "Alamein Copeland", in reference to former Alliance MP Alamein Kopu who ended up propping up the then National-led Government, Mr Copeland said while their surnames had elements in common, that was where "the commonality ends, I can assure you".
The new arrangement will see Mr Copeland voting against legislation setting up a trans-Tasman regime for complementary medicines and health products which he yesterday said he could probably support under a compromise brokered by New Zealand First.
Mr Copeland said he would not stand at the next election as a National candidate and had received nothing "of substance" from the deal.
He agreed that by giving his proxy to National he would have more time to spend setting up his party.
His justification for receiving a taxpayer-funded MP's salary while doing this was the "tremendous support" from people wanting to know what his new party was about.
"The people that gave their party vote to United Future in 2005, 80 per cent of whom were Christians, that's what our analysis showed, will be absolutely delighted.
"That support base overwhelmingly is in favour of a change of government, no doubt about it."
United Future won 2.67 per cent of the party vote at the last election -- well below the 5 per cent party vote threshold -- so only got MPs in Parliament because Mr Dunne won his electorate seat.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said Mr Copeland giving his proxy to National would not change anything because the Government had a confidence and supply agreement with him.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen said he was disappointed but "not overly concerned" with Mr Copeland's position.
"This is a situation where we have to dance with a number of partners and we're just learning to basically to dance with more partners as time goes on."
Mr Dunne said the only thing Mr Copeland seemed to be getting from the deal was "the honour and glory of being feted."
He told NZPA Mr Copeland's move distorted proportionality in Parliament, perverted the outcome of the last election "and I think is just a further blow to his shattered credibility. His position is simply untenable".
Mr Dunne said Mr Copeland should leave Parliament if he wanted to work full-time establishing his party.
National shadow leader Gerry Brownlee said that Mr Copeland's decision meant "the Labour Government has got 49, we've got 49 and they've got to work for their other 12 votes to get over the line on every piece of legislation".
"There's been a fundamentally shift of focus I think to the Green Party who will now be totally pivotal to the continuation of the current Labour Government."
Mr Brownlee said Mr Copeland had not come with a wishlist he wanted filled in return for his proxy.
He had been "emphatic" that beyond the next election he would not support a Labour-led Government and as a "show of good faith" wanted to give National his proxy.
- NZPA
