Clark papers over Coromandel gaffe

By HELEN TUNNAH

Labour scrambled into damage-control mode yesterday after party president Mike Williams mistakenly said the deal with Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons in Coromandel was off.

After a flurry of Beehive phone calls, Mr Williams said Prime Minister Helen Clark was still monitoring support for Labour in the seat, a key electorate in the July 27 election.

Helen Clark has said she will not encourage or discourage Labour voters giving their electorate vote to Ms Fitzsimons, who probably needs Labour support to hold the seat.

Buoyed by a new opinion poll which showed strong support for Labour's candidate, Max Purnell, Mr Williams had said that Labour would chase both the party and constituency votes.

He said the possibility that Mr Purnell could win the seat and continued Labour annoyance at the Greens' ultimatum over genetic modification meant the deal was now off.

However, although Helen Clark is furious about the Green position, she contacted Mr Williams yesterday to say nothing had changed - yet.

Her reluctance to abandon the informal agreement indicates that she is not yet ready to walk away from any coalition options, even with a party that has so angered Labour.

Tensions between the two parties intensified yesterday, with Labour MP Pete Hodgson launching a stinging attack on the "irrationality" of the Green's policy.

The Green Party's ultimatum last month not to support a government which lifts the moratorium on the commercial release of genetically modified organisms had already seen Helen Clark attack minor parties which try to hold major parties to ransom over policy.

The situation in Coromandel may change after a One News-Colmar Brunton poll that showed Mr Purnell just 1 per cent behind Ms Fitzsimons, who trails National candidate Sandra Goudie by 11 points for the electorate vote.

With Labour support, Ms Fitzsimons won the seat from National at the last election, but only by 250 votes.

Even though the Greens should get into Parliament without Coromandel, based on their party vote polling, they still want the insurance of an electorate seat win.

Mr Purnell told the Weekend Herald it was obvious Ms Fitzsimons was in trouble.

"I've sensed for a long time that I didn't think Jeanette was going to be able to win the seat. That's my task. To see whether or not we can. It's entirely do-able."

Mr Purnell said the GM policy had hurt the Green Party because of the belief that a small group could topple a govern-ment.

"People like this Government and they like what we're doing, and it was the thought that they would be going to bring down the Government."

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