Welcome to our Whodunnit? series. Because we are community-spirited bloggers, we are helping David Shearer to discover who his loose-lipped MP is; the one who blabbed to Patrick Gower from 3News.
Annette King is one of Parliament's longest serving MP's. First elected in 1984, she lost her Horowhenua seat in the Bolger landslide in 1990, when there was of course no second chance via the list. She was re-elected in 1993 in Miramar, which later became the seat she currently holds, Rongotai.
We actually have a certain level of respect for Ms King. We have had some verbal jousts with her in the past via social media. She was a loyal servant of Phil Goff whilst deputy leader of Labour between 2008 and 2011.
But loyalty to Phil Goff does not automatically translate into loyal support for the flailing David Shearer. Ms King has been around politics for a long time, and she knows a dying leadership when she sees one. In May 1996 she was famously part of a delegation that took a collective very deep breath and went off to visit Helen Clark, suggesting Ms Clark step down as leader. Others in the delegation included Phil Goff and Michael Cullen. Oddly, the challenge lit a fire under Helen Clark, and she went on toe become a formidable leader.
Annette King is a survivor. And she, more than almost anyone in Labour's current caucus will understand that if Labour does not do something soon, the party is doomed as far as the 2014 General Election is concerned. And whilst she may support her current leader publicly (as she did with Helen Clark in 1996), what is going on behind closed doors and in off-the-record chats with members of the parliamentary press gallery might be a different thing altogether.
On that basis, we'd rank Ms King at 7/10 on the probability scale. Her history of trying to initiate leadership change is definitely a contributing factor to that ranking.
Do join us tomorrow. If you know who sits at #7 on Labour's batting order, you'll understand that Part 7/34 might be a high ranker!
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