Why I won't be voting green.

Last month I commented on the NZ Green party's decision to campaign against the mining of coal.

Last night I went out to Blackball where we had a dinner and debate and watched a video of the Easter commemorations of the 1908 crib time strike in Blackball which marked the beginning of the national union movement in New Zealand. There was singing, much talk of politics, laughter and good food.

When we were watching the video, at the point where a snatch of Su Bradford's talk was played, staunch miner and unionist Les Neilson (one time president of the NZ miner's union) expressed his disgust that "she had the audacity to come here at Easter and now she wants the mines closed."

I've given this more thought, and I agree.

I don't trust that the Green Party has it's head around issues here on the West Coast and I won't be giving them my vote. I support some of their other endeavours e.g. around banning GM seed trials and campaigning for country of origin food labelling.