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Former Green MP Sue Bradford said the deal will “really silence” the voice of her party.
“They will just be an ineffective lapdog of Labor for the next three years.”
Former Greens co-leader Russel Norman believes the party would have been stronger in opposition.
“Once they are in government, they are effectively gagged, so they cannot set the agenda on many issues, but particularly on core issues like climate change,” he said.
The Greens needed a 75 percent majority of delegated members to say yes for the deal to go ahead: the party got 85 percent.
“What we got yesterday was a supermajority, so that’s a very clear mandate for us,” Davidson said.
Shaw added that he doesn’t feel gagged by the deal.
“We are really delighted that we have a win-win deal,” he said.
But ultimately, Labor has the vast majority and does not need this agreement to govern.
“When you don’t have bargaining power, it doesn’t make sense to sell you for trinkets, which is what they’ve done,” Bradford said.
Those “trinkets” are ministerial functions of the Greens. Davidson becomes Minister of Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence and Associate Minister of Housing. Shaw retains his position as Minister of Climate Change and is appointed Associate Minister of the Environment. Both Davidson and Shaw will be out of the Cabinet.
New ministers are bound by cabinet rules, which means that they do not speak out publicly against the government in their portfolio areas, although they can make a quiet note in cabinet minutes if they disagree.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the agreement means that the parties “don’t really have to agree.”
Despite being mandated to govern alone, Labor said it wants to work with all parties on a review of MMP and political donation laws. Also on the table is a four-year parliamentary term, which Ardern said would go to a referendum.
“No politician wants to be seen as fledging his own nest and has traditionally gone to a referendum, and I imagine that would be the most likely scenario,” he said.
