If you want an indication as to how wet National’s leadership has become, then you need go no further than having a look at what James Shaw has to say about it all:

If National committed to addressing inequality and “doing more than just lip service when it comes to climate change”, the Greens might consider working with them, co-leader James Shaw says. 

Shaw told The AM Show he has “a lot of respect” for National’s new leader Todd Muller having worked with him on the Zero Carbon Bill, but he said National is yet to win over the Green Party membership. 

“It’s actually Green Party members that decide who we go into Government with – not the leadership,” Shaw told host Duncan Garner. 

“If the National Party was prepared to come up with a deal where they could beat Labour and come up with a plan on addressing inequality, on climate action, and on protecting nature – and they could outdo our current partners on that – then we’d put it to the membership and see what they said.”

Shaw, who has co-led the Greens since 2015, said he would “like to see National try”. 

A National party prepared to crawl into bed with the Marxists in the Green Party is not a National Party I’d ever support.

If you thought a deal with Winston Peters was unpalatable might I suggest a plateful of Greens might turn your stomach even more.

A coalition with the Greens is guaranteed to turn most National Party supporters’ stomachs

You see there really is a scenario worse than a coalition with NZ First.

An invitation like that from James Shaw is one that should be met with a flat no.

What concerns me is that it is highly likely that Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye are probably sitting around in front of a white board working out how to seriously respond to them.

If you enjoyed this BFD article please consider sharing it with your friends.

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news,...