Former Green MP Sue Bradford says a coalition arrangement with National and Christopher Luxon would "destroy" the Green Party and be a "huge mistake".
She appeared on a panel with National's former campaign director Tim Hurdle this morning on Q+A. Hurdle was the party's campaign director three years ago.
In the past month, the Greens' leadership have been unified in suggesting a coalition with National would be unlikely after the election, with its co-leaders also reiterating that it'd be up to the party's membership to endorse such a coalition.
According to last week's 1News poll, a hypothetical National-Greens coalition government could govern with 63 seats — leaving ACT and New Zealand First in the cold.
But the oft-raised idea has tended to come as cold comfort to the Greens' membership. Luxon himself has also suggested the coalition would be very unlikely.
Bradford, who has previously criticised the party's current leadership for being too centrist, said today that a National coalition with the Greens was unthinkable.
She said: "It's just the opposite of almost all Green Party policy.
"I believe now that the Green Party membership and MPs as a majority would never accept a deal that would accept the other side of National's policies — in terms of tax cuts, of their policies on housing and in the rest of it."
The former Green MP was asked whether it made sense for her party to choose to allow a National-ACT-NZ First coalition to push through with the same policies instead.
Bradford responded: "This is the devil speaking."
She continued: "Many Green parties overseas have made that mistake and gone with right-wing parties in coalitions in Europe and other places. It's a huge mistake and would destroy the Green Party in this country if it took that step and I think they know it."
Meanwhile, Hurdle said negotiating with National would make sense "purely from a negotiation strategy" for the left-wing party.
"I think they should think about it purely from a negotiation strategy. They've always locked themselves in onto the left. They never get a chance to put the leverage, like Winston will be able to after the election or by indicating you could go the other way."
Luxon 'should've' made a decision on Winston earlier
Christopher Luxon said last month that he would pick up the phone with Winston Peters if he had to after the election. However, the National leader has reiterated that his preferred option was to form a National-ACT coalition without New Zealand First.
When asked whether Luxon should've ruled out Peters earlier, Hurdle said: "I think he should have done it earlier, if that was the position, that would have been my view.
"It sort of meant that it was so late that it became an issue, late in the campaign where people actually were focused on it."
National's campaign manager Chris Bishop told the Herald today that he believed there was the chance for a "second election" if people made Peters the kingmaker.
He used it as a warning to encourage people to vote for National instead.
The former prime minister said ideally it won't be a National-ACT-NZF coalition, but Luxon can trust Peters if he has to. (Source: 1News)
"We will pick up the phone if we have to and try to make it work. But there is a real possibility of the necessity of a second election and it's a growing one, unless people cast a strong vote for change," he said.
Bishop's comments have been seized upon by Labour's Grant Robertson this morning, who used them to attack Luxon's judgement.
Robertson said: "They have introduced chaos into the last week of the campaign by saying they could force a second election rather than work with New Zealand First - after saying for weeks they would work with New Zealand First.
"This has exposed a serious lack of judgement from Christopher Luxon and we've seen in the last 24 hours how chaotic a government he leads would be."
SHARE ME