James Shaw and Jacinda Ardern sign their coalition agreement. It's been revealed that the Greens must support the waka jumping bill as they forgot to oppose it during negotiations.

The Green Party has admitted that they did not even think to register opposition to a "waka jumping" bill during negotiations with Labour, so now have to support it.

A screenshot from a private Young Green Party Facebook group was shared on Reddit with details about why the Green Party has found itself supporting legislation - that would prevent MPs from switching to another party - they've historically opposed.

Young Green Party co-convenor Max Tweedie explains that during the blind negotiations the Greens were asked for a list of NZ First policies they disagreed with, so they could register opposition to them.

"Labour requested a list of NZF policies that we don't support, and while we went through, we didn't even think of the waka jumping bill. As a result because of the agreements between us, we have to support the bill because our opposition wasn't flagged," Tweedie wrote.

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"The bill has already passed first reading, so please direct your energy towards submitting at select committee. Caucus has indicated it will support the bill regardless."

A party spokesperson has confirmed the screenshot's veracity to Stuff.

"During the negotiations, we looked at the policies that parties ran on during the 2017 campaign. Waka jumping wasn't one of them. We are now managing this issue within the Green Party," a spokesperson said.

"This legislation has been historically problematic in the Green Party. Support is the price of entering government but the Bill is imperfect and we think there may be further improvements that can be made to the Bill through Select Committee stage."



The Green Party's confidence and supply deal was negotiated separately from NZ First's wider coalition agreement.

Labour promised to support the waka jumping legislation in their agreement with NZ First.

So-called "waka jumping" legislation allows party leaders to kick MPs out of Parliament if they have serious and public disagreements with the wider party.

The Greens supported the resulting bill through first reading but co-leadership candidate Julie Anne Genter said during her announcement press conference that the Greens should have a "big debate" before supporting it further.

Genter was not in the negotiating team and could have been unaware that the Green Party were somewhat bound to vote the legislation into law.

The screenshot was posted by a "throwaway" account which was seemingly created solely to post the image.

Tweedie refused to comment.

The Green Party's agreement with Labour does allow for disagreements on policies not covered by "collective responsibility."

"The Green Party will determine its own position in relation to any policy or legislative matter not covered by collective responsibility as set out below."