The general election is more than a year away but the battle lines are already forming. Two combatants, Labour and the Greens, have entered into a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to work together with the simple objective of ousting National from the treasury benches. It creates an interesting dynamic, given NZ First has repeated its view that it would not be part of a coalition that involved the Greens.
Now that Labour has stated a clear preference for the Greens, it makes a post-election coalition arrangement between Labour and NZ First less likely. NZ First also has a hard-line against working with the Maori Party (and any other party, which includes the Greens, that wants to put the Treaty of Waitangi as the core of our constitutional arrangements) so it is fast running out of dance partners; although it appears content to dance alone! The outcome of the next general election is already becoming set in stone, but more on that later.
If a Labour-Green coalition were to gain power, what would it mean for property investors? Continue reading