Kevin Hague With the many 'what ifs' being discussed ahead of the election, what is clear is that the Green Party is likely to push for some lgbti issues to be addressed in any coalition talks. The Greens have been polling around 13 per cent, which means they could bring as many as 17 MPs into Parliament and potentially have major sway when the next Government is being formed. Rainbow issues spokesman Kevin Hague, who is third on the Green Party list, says it's hard to say anything until the party knows how the numbers fall and what leverage it has. "We have consistently said that our top priorities will be cleaning up and protecting rivers, raising kids out of poverty, and creating jobs through green tech transformation of the economy," he says. "These are top of the list whether we are talking to Labour or National." Hague says the party will also explore what opportunities exist for its other important policies like the lgbti ones, which he points out don't really cost anything. "Labour has now adopted so many of our policies that I expect if we were negotiating there would be a lot of agreement, allowing us to try to force them to include advances on implementing "How To Make It Better", "To Be Who I Am" and overhaul of adoption law," he says. "If we're negotiating with National I expect the scope for lgbti initiatives to be much smaller, but the areas to push for are essentially the same." Hague says at this stage it's harder to be more specific. The Green Party's leadership has made it clear the party would be "highly unlikely" to support National after the election.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 25th November 2011 - 11:55am