May 23, 2002

“The media commentators have failed to understand the root cause of the Greens’ walk-out on the vote on GE legislation this week, “ says NZ First GE spokesperson, Brian Donnelly.

NZ First called the Greens’ bluff. The Greens were maintaining the most hypocritical position possible. On the one hand they were saying that the government’s GE politics were going to destroy NZ. On the other they were supporting the government and voting for its GE legislation.

At the committee stage, the Greens voted in favour of every one of the parts. They claimed that they had to do so because otherwise the good parts would not have been enacted.

From the first reading of the Bill, NZ First offered the Greens the opportunity to be true to their principles without compromising passage of the Bill. At no earlier stage did the Greens take up this offer.

In the end the Greens could no longer maintain their façade of purity, saying one thing outside the House and voting a different way in it.

“Like a lemon, the Greens were squeezed by NZ First into its grandstanding action,” said Mr Donnelly.

ENDS

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