Greens thumb nose at being part of coalition

By EUGENE BINGHAM

The Greens yesterday gave up on going into coalition if they won seats in Parliament, preferring instead to be "forthright and stroppy" on their own.

Party leaders Rod Donald and Jeanette Fitzsimons conceded that it was obvious they were not wanted by Labour or the Alliance.

Mr Donald said they would be happy to support the other two parties on confidence and supply, "as long as we are not taken for granted."

"A lot of people say we could be forthright and stroppy," said Mr Donald.

"So while we wouldn't bring the Government down we will be even-handed in our criticism of both the Government and the establishment Opposition."

The party will have to wait for special votes to be counted next week to find out if it has any voice in Parliament.

Jeanette Fitzsimons and Mr Donald yesterday outlined four areas requiring urgent attention - logging contracts on the West Coast, genetic engineering, halting spending on motorways and funnelling it into public transport, and providing relief for beneficiaries and the "working poor."

Jeanette Fitzsimons said she did not think Labour or the Alliance wanted to talk to the Greens.

Mr Donald said: "They certainly haven't made any concessions to us in the last couple of years so we don't need to make concessions to them unless it's in the interests of our policy and the wishes of the people who voted for us."

If the Greens do manage to gain the six seats, the Labour-Alliance share of Parliament will be reduced to 60 seats.

Labour believes it may gain one more seat once all the votes are counted, giving the coalition a majority in the 120-member House without the Greens.

* The fortunes of the Greens and co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons depend on the counting of 2841 special votes.

Jeanette Fitzsimons fell just 114 votes short of beating National MP Murray McLean in Coromandel and must now wait to see if she has enough special-vote Green support to send her into Parliament.

Even if she fails to get the 114 votes needed, the Greens could still get to Parliament if they manage to get about 12,700 party votes among the 211,807 special votes cast nationwide.

This would take the party over the 5 per cent threshold.