The Greens will not re-negotiate a deal with Labour if members reject it, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson have confirmed, meaning the party would go into Opposition.
Shaw and Davidson wrapped up their hour-and-a-half meeting with Prime Minister and Labour leader Jacinda Ardern on Tuesday evening in Wellington, confirming that they plan to finalise a deal by the week's end.
"They are progressing. Everyone is working really hard from both the Labour Party and the Green Party and we, at this stage, are hoping to have some sort of agreement to take to our members by the end of the week," Davidson told reporters.
"We've managed to both progress discussions. I can't divulge the actual content and the substance but we're working hard and we are moving forward."
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said conversations with the Greens progressed well and that it's Ardern's intention to wrap up talks by the end of the week.
Labour doesn't need the Greens. It won 64 seats after the election - three more than it needed to govern alone - but Ardern has been meeting with the Greens anyway to build consensus with her party's closest ally who picked up 10 seats.
Newshub has already revealed that Labour will not be forming a formal coalition with the Greens, with the Prime Minister planning a lower-level support arrangement.
But if the Greens put that arrangement to their members, and 75 percent of them reject it, the party will go back into Opposition after three years of being in Government for the first time.
"It's a straight-up and down vote so we would either join the Government or we would not join the Government," Shaw said.
"Once we do have some form of agreement, there is a call," Davidson added. "We don't know exactly how long that call will take but that call is for the wider party delegates. Last time it took a certain number of hours. We don't know - we cannot tell at this point how long the call will take."
Shaw and Davidson emerged to speak to media at around 4:45pm - 45 minutes later than expected. But the co-leaders insisted progress is being made and that the need for more meetings is simply due to the large amount of detail to cover.
"This isn't a delay. This is an ordinary process for both of our parties to keep stepping through the different sort of areas that are on the table, of which I won't be able to divulge," Davidson said.
"Everyone's using every single day to work really hard in these negotiations and we hope to have something to take back to our parties by the end of this week."
Shaw disagreed with the suggestion that the talks are taking longer than expected.
"You've got to remember that the fastest a Government has formed under MMP is 12 working days and we're not quite clear of that deadline since the last election. We're moving as fast as we can, but forming a Government is a complicated business and there's a lot to work through," he said.
"We have a really good relationship with the Labour Party so the talks are very constructive and very positive. But there's a lot of detail and that's why it takes the time it takes."
Ardern has already ruled out the Greens' wealth tax but there are several other Green Party priorities Labour could help them progress, from climate change action to transforming the farming and transport sectors to be more sustainable.
The Greens had some wins in the last Government thanks to their confidence and supply agreement in 2017 with Labour, from holding a recreational cannabis referendum to delivering a progressive home ownership scheme and passing the Zero Carbon Act.
