Who killed Professor Green in the Conservatory?

The ministerial ambitions of the Greens were killed off this week, and many people have been fingered as the killer – Winston Peters, Peter Dunne, Tariana Turia etc.

However the blame lies elsewhere – the Rt Hon Helen Clark. It is a fiction that she had no choice, and utter hypocrisy to hear her say it was beyond her control.

Here’s four options she had:

1) Get NZ First and the Maori Party to abstain on supply and confidence for a Lab-Green Govt. NZ First had already agreed to do this, and there was no real attempt at all to do the same with the Maori Party.

2) Get NZ First and United Future to abstain on supply and confidence.

3) Get a supply and confidence agreement with the Maori Party giving 61 votes out of 121 for a clear centre-left Govt.

4) Just form a Lab-Prog Government without NZ First and United Future as Ministers. This would not put the Greens in there, but at least would be far less of a slap in the face.

So why did Helen not do any of these things? Because it was politically undesirable in her eyes. She most certainly had a choice and options.

The Maori Party are in fact voting for Labour at this point. Helen could have got them on board for the full term by agreeing to repeal the F&S Act. She could have got abstentions for a lot less than that. But Clark believes being associated with the Maori Party is electorally unpopular so she *chose* to label them last rank off the cab (which funnily enough is what she also did to Winston in 2002) and to not form what would have been a clear left wing Government of Labour, Greens and Maori Party.

The fact her and Turia don’t like each other is irrelevant. Neither did Bolger and Peters in 1996.

Likewise Helen in no way needed to make Peters and Dunne Ministers. They did not demand it. She could have formed a Government without rubbing the Greens face in it with those appointments. But she wanted more than a majority on supply and confidence. She wanted deals on the Speaker and Select Committee Chairs.

So all this I had no choice sentiment from the PM, is simply spin. She chose to exclude the Greens from Government because she didn’t want to be associated with the Maori Party. Now I’m not saying that I disagree that it was the better choice to make, my point is though is that is was most definitely a choice.