17 October 2005

New Zealand First To Provide Supply And Confidence To Labour-Led Government

The Rt Hon Winston Peters today announced that New Zealand First will remain out of coalition government whilst agreeing to a confidence and supply agreement with the Labour-led government.

“The primary consideration for New Zealand First’s caucus and the party board of directors was the need to ensure a durable and stable government.

“To this end, New Zealand First has ensured that the potential for an unstable ‘Mexican standoff’ in Parliament is removed and a clear majority can be established on confidence and supply motions.

“New Zealand First is committed to ensuring that this government will last its full term – to November 2008.

“The agreement provides the opportunity for New Zealand First to deliver to its supporters on a range of key policy initiatives heralded during the 2005 election campaign.

“This is a positive arrangement that highlights the potential of MMP for a party to provide both stable government and deliver to their constituents. We look forward to making this work over the next three years,” concluded Mr Peters.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Sad that a once in a century pandemic should have come along before the government had a clearly thought out plan for rescuing all the firms and saving all the jobs in the tourism sector. Sad that the government now looks like it was making up the criteria for support as it went along. But guess what? To some extent, they were. Possibly because in the modern era, a pandemic had never before caused international travel to evaporate almost overnight... More>>