OPINION: The Greens have seen the light and ditched the dirty deal in Ōhāriu.
By breaking the dirty deal with Labour and fielding their own candidate,they have done the good people of Ōhāriu and the voters of New Zealand an almighty favour.
Thank goodness the "clean Greens" have reneged and decided that they are not dirty but kind of clean after all.
I have a lot of friends that are from Ōhāriu.
Sadly they have had to put up with a dirty deal where National told its voters to tick Peter Dunne rather than its candidate for far too long.
I hate these dirty deals - democracy is about candidates fighting for every vote, voters voting for who they want and the best person or party winning.
I believe politics should be pure - not dirty.
So I was disgusted this year when Labour and the Greens decided to get into the democratic gutter in Ōhāriu to fight filth with filth in a venal deal to get rid of Dunne.
The Labour-Greens deal was especially dirty because the Greens pulled their candidate off the ballot completely. This left Green voters no choice but to vote for Labour's Greg O'Connor.
I found this an especially unusual fit for Green voters as former cop Greg O'Connor had spent his adult life fighting for community constables to have the right to wear guns on their hip when they are in the queue for Subway at the Johnsonville mall. That doesn't really feel like part of the Green kaupapa to me.
I don't know what Green leader Jimmy Shaw's views on guns are - but given he does bikram yoga, can't drive a car and is the Aro Valley's proudest son it is fair bet he is not a fan of Glock pistols.
Anyway now that Dunne is gone and National's dirty deal has thankfully been destroyed, sanity has been restored to the Greens.
The voters of Ōhāriu can now vote for who they want and for the first time in years there will be a fair result.
All I can say is this: thank God for the Greens.
It leaves just the Epsom dirty deal for the political gods to frown upon, with National treating its voters like dirt there by standing someone to lose, and propping up Act.
New Zealand is suddenly close to being free of dirty deals - and the day that happens will truly be a good day to be a Kiwi.
Patrick Gower is Newshub's political editor.
