National has moved to bring yet another party under its wing by forming a tentative working relationship with the Green Party.
The co-leaders of the Green Party met Prime Minister John Key and his deputy Bill English on Tuesday night for the first time since National became government.Both parties said the first formal meeting between the two canvassed several areas of mutual interest and had been friendly.
Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said the leaders had now agreed to meet four times a year.
They would now work out a process for future engagement.
She said no concrete agreements emerged on specific policies, but areas that were discussed included home insulation and labelling of food with its country of origin.
The leadership of the two parties had met regularly when National was in Opposition.
The olive branch extended this week helps put behind the rancour in the build up to the election after the Green Party ruled out supporting National.
A spokesperson for Mr Key said he was happy to build relationships with a wide range of parties.
Although it is likely to be only an occasional friendship, any gains are not only for the Green Party. National will reap the benefit of gaining some green kudos and showing itself off as a genuine MMP party as well as using the expertise on energy efficiency projects Jeanette Fitzsimons built up in her role under the previous Labour government.
Ms Fitzsimons said her party had always said it would seek areas of common interest to work on. She said the Greens were not willing to trade off their key policies for the sake of being in a governing arrangement.
"But we will work like this to see what we can gain, rather than being too precious. The expectation of our supporters is that we will do whatever we can to advance Green policy under whatever party is in power at the time."
Although National ditched the $1 billion insulation fund Labour had promised the Green Party, Mr Key has mentioned home insulation as an option for future projects the government was considering as part of measures to save jobs in the recession.
