John Armstrong: Greens get down and dirty

Long lampooned as inhabitants of a different planet, the Greens have come so far down to earth they have started flinging it.

Such is their determination to eradicate the threat from posed by Winston Peters to their finally getting their feet under the Cabinet table, they breached their self-imposed ban on name-calling, dirt-chucking and personal insults at their pre-election conference this weekend.

Unlike United Future - which deliberately avoided drawing attention to New Zealand First's renaissance during its conference a week ago - the Greens instead chose to confront Mr Peters head-on. They deemed they had little choice.

Bad enough that the continuing surge in support for New Zealand First could frustrate their forming a coalition with Labour.

Worse still, the National Business Review's shock poll last Friday indicates National and NZ First could yet have the numbers to govern, thus shutting the centre-left completely out of power.

What was remarkable about Rod Donald's attack on Mr Peters in his Saturday speech was its venom.

The Greens' co-leader went for the jugular in a fashion which would have put Dracula to shame.

"A snake-oil merchant", "the ugly face of New Zealand politics", "echoes [of] Hitler's Germany", "divisiveness, intolerance and bigotry" - the invective just kept coming.

It is understood some of Mr Donald's colleagues had reservations beforehand about the tactical wisdom of this verbal lashing, worried it would divert attention away from the conference's more positive messages.

However, it was accepted the party would be failing in its moral duty if it did not speak out against policies which were an affront to its principles of tolerance and diversity.

The Greens also recognised that the Labour Party - which will want to keep its coalition options open - will keep biting its tongue.

Mr Donald's speech will do the Greens no harm.

They will win applause - and possibly votes - from those on the liberal left who are horrified that Mr Peters might once again wield the levers of power.

Mr Donald's caustic assessment of NZ First will not deter those flocking behind its banner.

And for his part, Mr Peters has refused to respond to this provocation. He is trying to cast the election as a three-horse race between Labour, National and his party. Indulging in a war of words with other minor parties is now beneath him.

Mr Donald's language may have more impact on unattached, middle-ground voters.

He warned the election would come down to a "stark choice" between a Labour-Greens Government and a National-NZ First one - a choice between progressive social policies of the left and reactionary economic policies of the right.

The Greens are punting this stress on "social justice" will help them increase their share of the vote. They hope such debate will help them expose shortcomings in Labour's record of assisting the poor and struggling which their policies address - student debt being the example highlighted at the conference.

But this more emphatic positioning of the Greens in territory previously occupied by the Alliance has some in the party worried they are diluting their greatest strength - their environmental brand.

The invitation to former Alliance leader Laila Harre to address the conference in her capacity as a trade union official might have served as a reminder of how that party went down the parliamentary plughole by pitching for the votes of the low-paid.

She got a standing ovation instead.

The surge in support for NZ First and the slump in Labour's has those on the left suddenly feeling under seige. Laila Harre's parting call to "stay staunch" was the one the conference wanted to hear.