A Not-So-Fine Romance

Compromise is becoming a dirty word for the smaller government parties.

- 

A not-so-fine romance

Oh, the flashback when Shane Jones, trying to tamp down coalition-wobble talk after the Government’s latest challenging policy announcement, said, “There are three of us in this Government.” He offered this as a statement of strength and unity, but his now-famous body language – gurning and facepalming behind the Prime Minister – said otherwise.

Short of delivering it from under sorrowfully lowered lashes, the Regional Economic Development Minister could hardly have done a better job of channelling Diana, Princess of Wales’ “there are three of us in this marriage”. No one could forget what happened next in the latter story: divorce.

Managing fidelity issues three ways is a cruel and unnatural process in private lives, but in government, every infidelity is played out in public. The halt to oil and gas exploration is just the latest example of how two’s company but three’s a crowd. It’s a blow to New Zealand First’s campaign to restyle itself as a country party that hundreds of millions of dollars in future exploration activity is now denied the provinces; this after curtailment of state irrigation subsidies.

These aren’t deal-breakers. Jones’s Provincial Growth Fund helps rebalance the ledger in NZ First’s favour for now. And the ties that bind Labour, the Greens and NZ First are sturdy: policy-making power, career advancement, boundless publicity, good pay and perks, a chance to further world peace and feed the poor and – no less important – to stick it to National.

But inevitably, the two smaller parties will feel short-changed and weigh the value of unity against the need to shore up their support with displays of defiance.