Originally Posted by
minimoke
Not necessarily. Put the coalition agreement aside for a moment. If I vote Labour and National gets in I don't get a further say on policy National puts forward. And even then National will go on and do stuff that wasn't even in a policy. eg putting up GST. Labour has done the same thing but its so long since they were on government I cant think offhand of an example.
We will get what we get. We all went into the elections knowing there would be a coalition and that there would be a very good chance NZ First would be the deal maker. Really, the only surprise is that Labour isnt in a stronger position.
But dont despair - we still have the usual law making process where most policies get tested through public consultation and select committees. Politicians always have an eye on the next election and they tend to err on the side of caution.
Its been 21 years now - I would have thought we would have grown up a bit and realised that negotiations, no matter what they are tend to be confidential. No side wants to show their hand.