Greens ready to reassess ties to Labour

Jeanette Fitzsimons

The Greens took swipes at Labour yesterday as they sought to reassert their independence and disown the political left as their home.

Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said the debate around the male co-leadership of the party, won by former Green Party campaign manager Russel Norman, had again raised the "debate of where the Greens are on the left-right continuum".

Terms such as "left and right" carried different baggage for different people and it was better not to use them if they were a barrier to communicating the Green message.

"Left and right started off meaning where you sat in relation to the president in revolutionary France. But in New Zealand, where the centre point keeps moving all over the room, what do the terms mean then?"

The Greens sat on the "left" with their support for the oppressed and disadvantaged and in the battle over more social services or tax cuts.

"But if the battle is between tax cuts and a massive spending splurge on new roads in the middle of a long-term oil crisis, we might even go for tax cuts."

The party's rejection of a "big, all-powerful state" in favour of empowering communities had more in common with some of the right.

"The real problem is that left-right politics ignores the elephant sitting in the middle of the room - the elephant that no one dares name, the elephant we call unsustainable growth."

The Greens brought a dimension to politics which "cannot be described as left or right", Ms Fitzsimons said.

They would work with National and Labour on an issue basis and any closer relationships would be determined election by election.

Heading into the last election, the Greens announced they would not support a Don Brash-led National government. They were then shunned by Labour, which opted to form confidence and money supply agreements with New Zealand First and United Future.

The Greens abstain in confidence and supply votes, giving the Government a comfortable margin on the budgetary votes needed to govern, in exchange for a co-operation agreement which secured Budget wins.

Ms Fitzsimons maintained the abstentions left the Greens in "a position of independence".

She expressed their frustration at being overlooked in the Government's formation, highlighting why the repositioning was taking place.

"Some of us are starting to draw the conclusion that Labour will never share power with its friends, only with its enemies, who might otherwise provide crucial support to the other side of the House."

In his first co-leader's speech, Dr Norman said that on some big issues there was "barely a whisker between National and Labour".

While closer to Labour, the Greens would work with whichever party addressed issues of sustainability.

The extra road funding in the Budget would have the opposite effect. "I'm going to write a letter to Michael Cullen to invite him over for dinner one night, but there is one condition. He has to join me on the bus home first - the number two leaves Courtenay Place at around 5pm on a weeknight. He can see how crowded the buses are.

"Just perhaps, when he has experienced the reality of people caught between rising fuel prices and inadequate and under-funded public transport, he might realise the mistake he has made ... Time to get out of your limo, Dr Cullen."

Dr Norman, who is already working for the Greens, will be paid to carry out his new job and continue to be based in its Wellington headquarters. He will become a spokesman in some policy areas.