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Members of the Green Party have voted to be part of the next government.
Under the agreement, the Green Party co-leaders will become ministers outside the Cabinet in a deal offered to them by the Labor Party.
James Shaw will remain as Minister for Climate Change and be Associate Minister for the Environment, while Marama Davidson will serve as Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, a new role that will build on Jan Logie’s undersecretary role during the last term and Deputy Minister of Housing with a focus on homelessness.
READ MORE:
* 2020 election: Green Party co-leaders get ministries in agreement offered by Labor
* Election 2020: Crunch time as referendum results roll in and Labor concludes talks with Greens
* Election 2020: Talks on the Labor-Green government will conclude on Friday, but the outcome will not be known until Sunday.
There are few policy details in the proposed cooperation agreement, other than a blanket agreement to work together on child poverty, climate change and the environment.
The co-leaders will be ministers from outside the Cabinet, subject only to collective responsibility in relation to their portfolios.
This will allow the Greens to openly oppose the government on other issues. There is also an agree to disagree provision on the issues the Green Party has portfolios on, so you may notice a difference of opinion there.
ROBERT KITCHEN / Things
Delegates from the Green Party are meeting at Zoom.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the cooperation agreement respected her party’s power to rule only while working with the Green Party on issues that the two sides agreed to.
“On election night I said that I wanted to govern for all New Zealanders and achieve the widest possible consensus on key issues. This agreement does that, while honoring the mandate given to Labor to form a majority government in its own right, ”said Ardern.
She said the agreement was groundbreaking to reflect the first majority of MMPs.
“Never before has a party won a majority under the MMP, but that does not mean that the principles of the MMP should be ignored.”
His full cabinet will be announced on Monday, whether or not the Green Party accepts the deal.
Under the deal, the Green Party would not oppose the Labor Party on trust and supply issues, but could abstain rather than vote in favor. The Labor majority means it can still win votes of confidence and pass its budget with or without the Green Party.
The agreement was published by the prime minister’s office as members of the Green Party meet to vote on the agreement.
Ardern said Shaw knew climate change “from the inside out” and portfolio stability would help.
“His experience in this complex and detailed policy area is an important skill set to draw from and he has a variety of relationships with national and international stakeholders that are important to maintain,” Ardern said.
Details of the deal have been kept secret, and the entire Green Party group only learned of the deal at the meeting.
The agreement also says that the Greens will chair and vice-chair two select committees. Green Party delegates have been told that these positions would go to Julie Anne Genter and Eugenie Sage, MPs who were ministers in the last government but have been lost under this deal.
They will likely chair or vice chair select Transportation and Environment committees.
The decision on who to chair those committees would ultimately go to the party assembly and party representatives at large before a decision is made.
The full text notes that the Labor Party is eager to advance the changes suggested by the 2012 MMP revision of the Election Commission. This would mean the end of the “coat tail” and a lower party vote threshold to enter Parliament.
Delegates are organized at the geographic branch level, which could dilute some of the power of the party’s most left-wing urban wing.
Things understands that the deal was approved by 85 percent of the delegates, an overwhelming majority, however the number of votes against is an increase in the vote from the 2017 trust and supply agreement when only three delegates opposed.
The negotiations are in stark contrast to those held after the 2017 elections, when the Labor Party needed the support of both NZ First and the Green Party to govern.
After a landslide result in the 2020 election, Labor does not need any other party to rule, a first for the MMP.
In Shaw’s first term as Climate Change Minister, he led the Zero Carbon Act in Parliament, winning National’s support after lengthy negotiations.
In the 2020 elections, the Green Party campaigned for a much bolder leftist policy than Labor, committing to introduce a guaranteed minimum income paid by a new wealth tax.
Labor has ruled out implementing such a wealth tax in any form and is instead opting to raise income taxes for those who earn more than $ 180,000.
