November 22, 2023
Coalition approach shows trust lacking
Former Mana Motuhake and Alliance leader Sandra Lee-Vercoe says the drawn out coalition talks point to a fundamental lack of trust between the three right wing parties.
She says the process of going through the proposed agreement line by line to match up policies points to NZ First leader Winston Peters’ legalistic approach – and it hasn’t resulted in stable coalitions the other times he has used it.
The approach taken by the Helen Clark Labour Government and the Alliance resulted in a simple one or two page document which allowed the parties to agree to disagree.
“The trouble with the line by line approach is it sort of suggests the parties can all reach a policy agreement and they can’t under MMP because if they did, there wouldn’t be a need for three parties. They could all be in one party and they’re not,” Ms Lee-Vercoe says.
She says Winston Peters worked extremely well with Jacinda Ardern, but it’s a different dynamic to the three men negotiating the coalition agreement.