Australian Prime Minister John Howard is expected to press National leader John Key heavily tomorrow to support the bill before Parliament establishing a transtasman regulatory agency for therapeutic medicines.
And oddly enough, the importance of him persuading National has increased greatly since Labour's decision on Tuesday to expel
Taito Phillip Field. The Therapeutic Product and Medicines Bill is one of the pieces of legislation that may be affected by the fact that Labour will no longer rely on Mr Field's vote.
Labour persuaded its two confidence and supply partners, New Zealand First and United Future, to back the bill to a select committee.
Those parties have made no commitments beyond getting it to a select committee but if both continued to support it, it would have passed all stages when Labour stood at 50.
Now that it is at 49, the numbers game has changed, and it requires the support of another party.
The Greens are vehemently opposed to it, as is Act. The Maori Party is undecided, and with National MPs understood to have mixed views and to support CER and a single economic market, National's support is considered winnable.
But that example is an exception. Generally the new numbers are expected to give the Greens more influence.
The Greens can expect to be consulted more closely on any changes to the governance structures for Auckland.
Green MP Keith Locke said the party was in favour of "grassroots democracy" of councils and community boards. The supercity model was "quite offensive to us", he said.
Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons yesterday said the Greens did not want to be the tail that wagged the dog.
"We have perhaps a little more influence than we have. We will use that responsibly."
She confirmed that the Greens would abstain on tax-cut measures.
The Numbers
* Labour needs 61 votes to pass legislation in Parliament.
* Labour's 50 and Progressives' 1 vote makes 51 votes.
* Minus Mangere MP Taito Phillip Field makes it 50.
* Under agreements, the Government can rely on NZ First's seven and United Future's three to make 60 on a confidence vote.
* With the Greens' six abstaining on confidence, the most the other parties can reach is 54 (National has 48, the Maori Party four and Act two).
* To get a 61 vote on legislation (parties rarely abstain), the Government has needed to rely on just two parties, NZ First and United Future.
* Losing Mr Field could force Labour to find yet another voting partner, from the Greens or Maori Party.
