Major parties shun the Greens during radio debate

5.00pm

Labour and National are both giving the Greens the coalition cold shoulder.

National's leader Bill English said today he would not consider discussing it with them and would look to ACT as an ally to govern with.

Miss Clark said the Greens had ruled themselves out of coalition because of their stance on genetic engineering.

The two leaders were speaking in the first of Radio New Zealand's leaders forum programmes, broadcast this morning.

Mr English said that when it came to the future of GE in New Zealand his party and Labour agreed on the Royal Commission's recommendations about the way ahead.

"We would vote together in Parliament so the Greens are irrelevant," he said.

Miss Clark again said her aim at the election was to gain an outright majority in coalition with Jim Anderton's Progressive Coalition, and if that did not happen her second preference was to run a minority government.

Mr English was equivocal about whether he would consider talking to New Zealand First about a coalition. He said National had been down that track once, and NZ First leader Winston Peters could be "a bit difficult to deal with".

The programme was recorded at Victoria University and the two leaders faced questions from a student audience.

There was a strong focus on secondary and tertiary education.

Mr English said there had to be "a bit more money" to settle the teachers' dispute, because teachers had choices and were being offered bigger salaries elsewhere.

Miss Clark said the Government would continue to negotiate in good faith and warned that if one pay settlement went "way out of line" it would impact on demands from other sectors.

They both disagreed with Mr Peters' demands for drastic cuts in immigration.

Miss Clark said many young New Zealanders moved overseas, if only for a while, and others had to be attracted.

"If we cut ourselves off, we'd be living in decline with an ageing population," she said.

Mr English said New Zealand was going to continue to need immigrants and their skills should be matched with the country's needs.

They were asked to explain what fundamental differences existed between Labour and National.

Miss Clark said the Government could not be "hands off" and had to engage with business while investing as much as possible in health, education and law and order.

Mr English said political leadership had to be more ambitious and aim for a better standard of living for everyone by "backing people" rather than telling them what the answers to their problems were.

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