The newly launched Sustainable NZ Party has been criticised a puppet party set up to either give National coalition option they are currently lacking, or compete with Green votes to try to stop the Green Party making the 5% threshold,
But if SNZ makes it into Parliament (this is a long shot but possible) they could help Labour or the Greens (if the get back in) as much if not more than they could help National.
SNZ in Parliament could give Labour a choice between them and the Greens, giving them more coalition bargaining power.
SNZ could also give Labour or Labour+Greens an alternative to NZ First for a coalition.
A Labour+Greens+SNZ coalition should have a strong environmental mandate, far stronger than currently with NZ First in the mix.
The Greens have actually reacted with “it only strengthens democracy when we have a diversity of people running in general elections”.
And even if National and SNZ form a coalition, that must be better for environmental policy implementation than National on their own or with ACT.
The bleating from the left seems more old school politics where parties like Labour think they should be able to effectively rule on their own, or as far as the Greens are concerned worried about self preservation (the threshold), or seeing themselves as the exclusive champion of environmental policies.
Martyn Bradbury at The Daily Blog: The real purpose of National’s new ‘Sustainability NZ Party’
The point of Sustainability NZ for National is not to get over 5% and join them in Parliament, it’s to take just enough green voters away from the Greens so as to sink them under 5%.
That’s just one possibility. Voters may see differently – two environmental parties could be better than one.
If we had a Green movement that wasn’t more focused on meaningless consensus and middle class identity politics, they could see this challenge off from Sustainability NZ, but because of the shrill alienation the Greens manage to create, this could be the plot to rob them of any representation post 2020.
He also takes a swipe at the Greens. The bitterness of someone with no party to support.
Voters could dump the Greens from Parliament regardless of SNZ. If that happens and SNZ manages to get in then we must be better off than being left with National versus Labour.
MickySavage at The Standard: Sustainable Party launches
The Sustainable Party, National’s sock puppet party designed to weaken the Greens has launched.
That’s a negative Labour reaction, without stopping to think through the possibilities.
At a time when the world is in a crisis caused by run away climate change there is only very oblique reference to this most pressing of problems. It should be centre and front of any policy announcement by a so called environmentally focussed party. That it is not speaks volumes. And that the policy is being used to try and wedge the Greens on Generic Engineering shows the real motivation behind the party.
The Greens should be challenged on their ridiculous entrenched anti-GE position,
Of course the reality is that this party is a puppet party, designed to cause as much grief as possible to the Greens.
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And he refuses to accept that late stage capitalism and unfettered greed and growth are the cause of our problems. That economic disparity and ecological decline are happening hand in hand because they are symptoms of the same problem. Instead he claims that his party is “pro-progress, pro-technology and pro-science” and seems to think that eternal economic growth is possible.
This sounds like knee jerk anti-new party syndrome – established parties seem to hate newbies with new approaches. They seem to feel threatened.
Beyond the overreaction of political bloggers, RNZ – Sustainable New Zealand political party: Other parties unruffled
The Greens said they were “not too fussed” about a potential rival, saying in a statement the ‘teal’ vote was miniscule.
“We think National are the only ones likely to lose support,” it said.
“However Mr Tava is welcome to give it a go – he has every right to and in fact it only strengthens democracy when we have a diversity of people running in general elections.”
Yes, under MMP more parties in Parliament strengthens democracy, giving major parties more options to get genuine majorities to progress policies.
Former Green MP Sue Bradford did not think Sustainable NZ would take many votes from the Greens.
“While Mr Tava talks about being willing to go with National or Labour or anyone else I think it’s pretty clear that they are positioning themselves very much on the right side of the political spectrum with all their talk of working with business…
Funny, Bradford equates “talk of working with business with “very much on the right side of the political spectrum”. Even Russel Norman appeared willing to talking with businesses, and James Shaw certainly is willing.
Apart from the fringe far left healthy business is seen as an integral part of the way we live.
Forest & Bird chief executive Kevin Hague said more voices for protecting the environment was a good thing, but he thought the party might struggle to get a coherent message through.
“Much of the destruction of the environment has been the result of commercial exploitation and it seems like their economic policies may not be ones that would actually change that, so we look forward with interest to see what the full suite of their policies might be,” he said.
Mr Hague said focusing the majority of their policies on the environment, could place them at a disadvantage too.
“If they say they’re just going to have environmental policies that is going to make them pretty much a lame duck within Parliament on most issues.
Not necessarily. All parties in Parliament have to make decisions on issues they don’t have policies on. That doesn’t make them lame ducks on those issues. And where parties have policies on issues the reality is that most parties have to compromise on their own policies most of the time.
Labour’s 2020 campaign chair Megan Woods said they had not yet discussed the prospect of working with the party.
Ms Woods said however it would not change anything about their campaign and Labour would just be focused on telling its own story.
“[The] launch comes as no surprise, this has been well signalled, but what it does show yet again is that National still has a big strategic dilemma around a lack of coalition partners,” she said.
If she or Labour thought things through it could be a positive change for them – providing they can win more votes than National next election.
Newshub: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern throws doubt on Vernon Tava’s Sustainable NZ
Jacinda Ardern has hit out at the newest political party Sustainable New Zealand, saying the Government is already catering to the environmental needs it’s offering.
“I do believe that environmental matters are a huge focus for this Government and I don’t see that there’s necessarily a space that [Sustainable NZ] need to fill,” the Prime Minister said Monday.
But Labour leader Ardern questioned the need for Tava’s party in the current political space, asking reporters at her post-Cabinet press conference: “What is the political issue that they are trying to solve?”
Ardern said the current Labour-Green-New Zealand First Government is already doing plenty for the environment, pointing to the Zero Carbon Bill that passed its final reading last week.
She also reflected on the $181.6 million funding boost over four years given to the Department of Conservation in Budget 2018 – the largest bump in conservation funding since 2002.
“If they claim that they are operating in an environmental space… I’d say that it’s being very well catered for by this Government,” Ardern said.
How well the environment is being catered for is debatable, and could be better catered for if SNZ replaced NZ First as a coalition partner for Labour+Greens.
SNZ could compete with votes that could otherwise go to Labour, and that’s not what a party leader wants.
But for non-aligned people like me another party option to vote for is a good thing. I don’t think there are any current parties in Parliament that deserve my vote. I’d like more options, and SNZ looks to be potentially a good one.