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Jacinda Ardern’s Labor Party signed a “cooperation” agreement with the Green Party, the prime minister said, saying she hopes the agreement will be an additional level of stability for her second term in government.
The Labor Party won a landslide victory in the October 17 elections, securing a parliamentary majority in its own right. However, Ardern has spent the last fortnight negotiating with the Greens, and on Sunday he signed an agreement that gives the left-wing party, which speaks openly on environmental and social justice issues, two ministries outside the cabinet.
“This agreement is unlike any other. It does not require consensus building. It allows the parties to take their own positions on issues where that is important, but also offers to work together in other areas, ”Ardern said.
“This cooperation agreement represents the relationship that the Labor Party and the Green Party have formed over the past three years and the continuation of that.
“It is important for the government (the agreement) to bring stability.”
Greens co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson will hold the climate change and family violence portfolios respectively, and both will sit outside the cabinet.
The Greens secured an increase in their vote in last month’s elections by pledging to support the Ardern government. The prime minister has garnered record approval ratings as a leader, and her government has garnered international and national praise for its handling of the pandemic, which has brought life back almost to normal in a matter of months.
“The Greens campaigned to work productively with Labor to get things done, especially in the area of climate change and inequality,” Davidson said.
“We are very proud to sign this agreement today.”
The decision to accept Labor’s offer came down to the vote of the rank-and-file Greens, of whom 85% voted in favor.
Davidson and Deputy Labor Leader Kelvin Davis, both Maori, spoke in te reo Māori at the official signature.
The parties also agreed to advance a shared political agenda on climate change, the environment, child welfare and the issues of “marginalized communities”.
In his second term, Ardern won’t have a big “handbrake” in his first term: Winston Peters’ First New Zealand match.
The deal means that the Labor Party and the Greens can now go ahead with the policies they both agreed to, but New Zealand First did not.
“It’s a new parliament and a new day,” said Shaw, a longtime adversary of Peters.
One of those problems, the implementation of pill trials at festivals, could happen soon.
“That is a basic security problem. It’s about saving lives and I think people appreciate it, ”Ardern said.
