So National Act and NZ First have apparently worked out their policy differences and are now dealing with the important stuff, how to divide up the baubles of office.
Clearly Winston is holding out. David Seymour’s public campaign that as the leader of the second biggest party he should be the Deputy Prime Minister shows how tense things are.
Christopher Luxon has been forced to call it a “ceremonial position”. Seymour is essentially begging for the position, and you get the feeling that Winston may have made being the Deputy a bottom line or at least NZ First are seeking an extra ministerial position at the cost of Seymour becoming DP.
After all policies come and go, what is really important is what prestige you are offered.
We should not be surprised.
I am old enough to remember 1996 where Winston toured the country promising a change of Government and then backed up National. The attraction of the Ministerial limos was too much.
Then there was 2005 when he toured the country promising to eschew the baubles of office.
In one pre election speech he promised NZ First would sit on the cross-benches outside of Government and abstain on confidence and money-supply votes unless stability was threatened. After the election he succumbed to the temptation of being Minister of Foreign Affairs. The arrangement worked quite well. He was out of the country most of the time and did a good job schmoozing with International Politicians.
But the event shows how flexible his principles are. And how important status is to him.
The time it has taken is clearly an embarrassment for action man Christopher Luxon. Who can forget their pre election advertising about there being a coalition of chaos.
But let the circus continue. The longer they take to form a Government the better.
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