[pf] Being Green, under Mixed Member Proportional representation.

http://onenews.nzoom.com/politics/government/story.html?story_comment9.inc
  is:

  Leftovers

     by www.nzoom.com parliamentary columnist Fiona MacMillan 
                
  There's something terribly sad about being the little guy when no one
cares about you. Being a well-loved little guy is heroic, or at worst,
cute. Being the little guy when nobody wants to vote for you is just sad.
It's worse than that in politics though, it's poll death. 

  The poor old Alliance Party [that The Greens were a main part of, before
MMP came in] must be feeling all ripped up by rejection right now. They've
done nothing wrong, but the truth is, between elections and covered by the
blanket of Government, they're subsumed. For poor cheerful Matt Robson,
earnest Laila Harre and fluffy Phillida Bunkle, being cute is not enough.
Naturally they'd be asking the hard questions at the annual party
conference over the weekend. 

  ACT might well be asking the hard questions too. Roger Douglas is surely
even now tsk-tsking about the latest poll ratings - proof that he was right
to worry about the impact of sensationalist attacks on the behaviour of
Maori MPs.  "Issues", Sir Roger [the founding father of ACT] must be
moaning in his sleep. "Isssuuoooes."  And then there's New Zealand First,
the boys' party, Winston's boys, totally reliant on the profile, poll
ratings and mood of their leader. 

  Those three couldn't be more different in look or ideology. In theory,
they shouldn't be fighting for voters. It's not like they have a potential
support base in common but between Winston despising ACT and ACT not
wanting to hit National, its potential future coalition partner, too hard
and the Alliance needing to be loved and held but not suffocated by
Labour's governmental hug, they just end up swiping at each other. All in
aid of pulling back up above the critical 5% support level. 

  And then standing above all this, tall like a kauri tree, are the Greens,
floating as if on some mystical cloud above the polling mayhem of their
small party siblings. Right now, it's easy being Green. The Greens give
good brand. Everyone knows what they are about; they are a political
consultant's wet dream come true. They know what it is to have a firm grasp
on an issue and never, never let it go. 

  You see this during every Parliamentary question time. No matter what the
question or the issue, they can turn into an environmental matter. A crisis
in foreign affairs? No problem. The Government may be coping with it in its
own way, but Keith Locke will have a query about the justice and
sustainablility issues raised by dealing with states without appropriate
attitudes to recycling. Anything to do with agriculture is easy fodder for
Ian Ewen-Street. He'll want to know about environmentally friendly ways to
deal with the latest deadly pest or biohazard that's threatening our rural
economy. Sue Kedgley can find a GE scandal in anything from school science
experiments to Beehive cafeteria food. 

  Rod Donald [one of the two co-leaders of The Greens] is a dab hand at
almost any topic and always looks like he's having far too good a time
asking questions of the Government. He sits back after each swipe with a
wide, wide smirk on his face, looking like he's just said something
impossibly cheeky and clever. He makes frequent trips to the Press Gallery
during which he hardly ever stops smiling. It was his birthday just the
other day. The other Greens were serving him organic spiced apple cake and
drinking water from the glasses stacked by the water cooler. Rod turned 43,
but that was clearly no reason to start being sensible. 

  In fact every day is party day when you're a Green. It's like they
haven't figured out yet that they're politicians and that means lying,
stomping and getting little tension lines around the corners of their
mouths. In fact, at their latest strategy meeting, there was some
discussion, tongues only partly in checks, about issuing a requirement for
compulsory fun in all branch offices. 

  A year of power hasn't stopped them from being real people. Possibly not
the sort of real people my mother would invite round for dinner, but real
people who haven't been tainted by the compromise that's hobbled the
Alliance or the dirt digging that's soiled ACT. 

  They haven't had to change because they are small and loved, cute and
heroic. They don't know the panic and pain of poll failure. They claim to
believe that political survival is based on enjoying oneself. But behind
all the hugging and hand holding, behind the broad grins, there is a
marketing strategy. 

  Don't assume for a minute that because the Greens are fun and frolicking
types they don't have a plan. They have a target market of 18-30 year old
voters and those people, say the Greens, are not interested in negative
politics. In fact, they might not be interested in politics at all, were it
not for Nandor's laid back sex appeal and pro-cannabis stance. Don't think
that sending Nandor and Sue to Melbourne for the trade protests was done on
a whim. Pictures of those two protest veterans being stomped on by police
were solid gold in their demographic. 

  It can't last though. Even if they party their way through the next
election, on current polling they could well be Labour's only hope for a
coalition partner. Wary of the suffocating hug that is choking the
Alliance, they are keenly waiting on the new cabinet manual to see what
room there will be for differentiation. It's possibly too late for the
Alliance, who hate the Greens like an older brother who's been lumbered
with an elderly parent to look after. That's not going to help the Alliance
any. No one likes a bully, and that's what you look like if you're down on
the little guy.

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sent on to Fos Fut by David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
http://www.geocities.com/davdd.geo/index.html#top
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