By: Katie Bradford-Crozier | Monday, April 16, 2012 6:04 AM

Are the Greens getting too big for their boots?

That's the question raised by political old timer Peter Dunne after the parties announced there'll be no expansion of the Memorandum of Understanding signed after the 2008 election.

Many wonder if National and the Greens would ever have been able to work together and it did seem strange the "third biggest" party expected to get much more out of the government this electoral term.

The initial agreement covered some minor, but important issues - the national cycleway, home insulation and clean up of toxic sites.

But there seems little for the government to gain by cozying up any further to the far left party. Yes, it may have meant more votes on some bills, but it's unlikely the Greens would ever support any legislation seen as truly contentious, or legislation Labour or New Zealand First wouldn't vote for anyway.

National says the plan the Greens took too them was too costly. The Greens say not everything on the wishlist involved a financial commitment and actually the government doesn't want anything to do with them because they want to head further to the right.

Both points have some truth to them. National has clearly indicated this year that it wants to follow up on its campaign promises - Gerry Brownlee says the party has a mandate for that and from asset sales to the deal with Sky City, people knew that when they voted blue.

The Greens have been staunchly opposed to those deals, and more. And the Green voice has certainly been louder than the yells from the red side of the house.

Because despite the start of a reform process, Labour is still in tatters. The Greens picked up some of those pieces at the last election, and continue to soar in the polls.

But they now have to be careful not to get too high and mighty, they need to remember who their voters are. If they do the job right they'll continue to pick up Labour votes. Their ranks soared to two thirds of Labour's at the last election and the traditional party of opposition is starting to get nervous.

So while Labour and the Greens are supposed to be opposing the government, are they going to be too busy scrapping for the same votes to concentrate on the job at hand, leaving National to continue to soar.