A couple of weeks back I argued that Bill English had to go because I couldn’t see him bring about the necessary change to the National Party that would ever allow the Greens to buddy up with them. That wasn’t saying that Bill’s a bad bloke. I don’t think he his. I think he’s a bit of an old fashioned compassionate conservative myself.
So in some respects I was sad to hear of his resignation. Whatever your political leanings it’s hard to disagree that New Zealand came out of the GFC in a fairly robust position economically. After all we are not a complete basket case. However it would be hard to argue that environmentally and socially we are in a better place though, and that has been a legacy of Bill’s handling of the books.
It seems that decisions made during the GFC to protect the economy overlooked the effect those decisions would have on the people and the environment. And that’s where the Nats and the Greens have major differences of opinion. And that’s why, unless the Nats undertake some serious soul searching about where their priorities lie, I doubt the two would ever be able to work together in coalition.
But we should never say never. That would be daft and cutting off our noses to spite our faces. There will always be areas of common interest we could work on. Given the make up of this current parliament it will be interesting to see if any such issues arise where that can happen. Perhaps the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary is one such issue. It would be fascinating to see what Winston would do if the Greens pulled that one out the hat.
In reality though I believe that the Nats have to prove themselves first before the Greens would be willing to put the coalition at risk, or even risk going into government with them. But here’s a start. Maybe it’s time every party in parliament took seriously Chlöe Swarbrick‘s call to do politics differently. I have have to wonder if the younger generations call for more co-operation rather than confrontation is no bad thing. Something all partys need to work on of course, but the Nats need to do first. After all, they’re the ones with no mates.
Hawkes Bay Greenie 