The undermining continues...

David Cunliffe has successfully undermined his party leader David Shearer again; Pete George at Your NZ describes the scene:

The question:

The panel may or may not know the answer to this one, but I see there’s leading members of the opposition here.
Does anyone know, that when the opposition becomes the Government in 2014, whether they will repeal this bill?

The camera panned to David Shearer standing at the back of the hall alongside David Parker. There were calls of ‘Dave’, and Shearer started to look around inquiringly, then uncomfortably. Parker points to Shearer, presumably indicating that’s where the mic should be brought.

There was a bit of crowd banter. Then the shot switches back to the front where David Cunliffe stands with a microphone.

Sometimes you have issues where you feel your ancestors fluttering around the ceiling, and the Labour party has a proud tradition of taking on evil and iniquitous legislation, whether it’s apartheid, or nuclear weapons, or other things of that nature.
Our leader has committed to a thorough review of this legislation.
And based upon what we have heard tonight, I personally and I’m sure my caucus colleagues, would be of the view that this legislation must not, will not and cannot stand.

Cunliffe sat back down in his front row seat.

This is fascinating. The meeting was held at the Mt Albert Memorial Hall, right in the heart of David Shearer's electorate. The hall itself is a Labour fortress; it was there that Helen Clark regularly gathered with the faithful on election nights, and it was from that stage that she announced that she was standing down as Labour's leader on Election Night 2008.

David Shearer's presence in the hall was obviously known. As the local MP, you'd expect him to be given pride of place in the front row, but the People's Champion, David Cunliffe was accorded that status. Although this wasn't a Labour Party function, it was very much a gathering of the Left. So was it a not-so-subtle message to Mr Shearer that the rank and file of the Left and of Labour does not support him?

And Pete George poses the $64 question:

It would be interesting to know who asked the question. It could have been a pre-planned question and answer, as often happens at political meetings.

That's not an entirely fanciful notion, given the disunity in Labour, the disconnect between the parliamentary Labour Party and the rank and file and the repeated destabilisation of Mr Shearer's leadership both from within caucus and without.

One thing is for sure though; David Cunliffe won't have minded in the slightest being called on to articulate Labour's position, even though he was demoted to the back bench earlier this year. His answer certainly seems very eloquent for oner crafted on the spur of the moment, which adds weight to Pete's theory.

Mr Cunliffe may (or may not) have projected an image of gravitas last night but we reckon that on the inside, he would have been grinning like a Cheshire cat.