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Former Green MP Catherine Delahunty is correct when she says the Greens should stay away from a Labor government this term.
Catherine did a media round this morning arguing that the Greens would be “better independent” rather than reaching an agreement with Labor that “mutes their ability to speak.”
Catherine obviously seems to be motivated by the desire for a policy change, so her argument seems to be that the Greens may put more pressure on Labor if they advocate loudly from the sidelines rather than silently behind closed doors where none of us can hear the message.
She is correct.
But, the other consideration is the damage a deal with Labor could do to the Greens.
Work will rule from the center. They have made this clear several times both before and after the elections.
They are going to rule in a way that doesn’t upset the centrist voters who moved out of National.
So there is now very little risk of Labor doing something they previously touted as “transformative.”
The Greens don’t want to be a part of it.
This move to the center is almost certain to upset voters on the left who have already had three years of disappointment and now are almost certain to face another three years.
If the Greens are in some sort of arrangement that forces them to share responsibilities or forces them to publicly support government moves, then they run the risk of sharing the blame with voters on the left.
They’ve copied it enough in the last three years from staunch ideologues on the left.
Better to avoid that and sit on the side, either entirely or in an arrangement that allows them to join in the criticism of the Labor movement at the center.
In the long run, this will also be a better play for the left block. Because what it does is leave left-wing voters to the greens, it allows Labor to aspire to center voters, and it leaves National with a place to go beyond actually waiting for center voters to fall in love with Labor. .
