Greens cover their bets with Labour

By VERNON SMALL

The Green Party opened its annual conference in Auckland yesterday planning to define its role in a future Labour-led government - despite the row that has all but ruled it out of a coalition.

The 230 delegates at the three-day conference - the longest on the political calendar thanks to the party's consensus decision-making - will decide if talks should be held with Labour after the election, widely tipped for late next month or early August.

The remit allows for a looser relationship than a formal coalition, referring to negotiations about "policies and processes that will advance the Green agenda".

Co-leader Rod Donald said he hoped the remit would be strongly endorsed because the door must be kept open for a potential coalition.

The result of post-election talks would be taken back to a special meeting of the party for ratification within a month of the poll.

But a formal coalition seems impossible after the seven Green MPs said last week that they would vote to bring down a government that lifted the ban on the commercial release of genetically modified organisms.

The conference will almost certainly back them.

The moratorium is due to end in October next year, so there could be another election in early 2004 if the Greens hold the balance of power and follow through with their threat.

Prime Minister Helen Clark has attacked them for taking a non-negotiable stance on a single issue.

But she has also called for a progress report on the new regime for assessing and approving commercial release of GM organisms, suggesting that the moratorium may stay in place longer.

If Labour and the Greens break the impasse and agree to form a coalition, remits at the conference would also try to weaken the doctrine of Cabinet collective responsibility.

It has already been softened under Labour and the Alliance, who can "agree to disagree" on policies where they have fundamental differences.

Some Green members also want to free a minister from announcing a decision contrary to party policy and, as far as possible, from implementing it.

But Mr Donald said there were better ways, such as negotiations, to prevent Green ministers fronting policies they opposed.

"The truth is that already happens. This would not create a precedent."

The conference opened with a speech by Australian Green senator Kerry Nettle, who stressed the importance to the Green cause of youth issues and the anti-corporatisation and anti-globalisation messages.

Mr Donald and co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons speak today, before an evening social featuring dreadlocked MP Nandor Tanczos among the DJs.

Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson and economist Susan St John will address the conference tomorrow.

It will end on Monday afternoon after a closed workshop on the election campaign and the party's role in government.