The Labour Party Head Office is spinning like a top. Tim Barnett and Moira Coatsworth are trying their damnedest to hose down any mention that Helen Clark may have had something to do with David Shearer's shock resignation two weeks ago; the Herald reports:Rumours are circulating again about the role Helen Clark had in moves to roll David Shearer as Labour's leader just before he resigned to pre-empt a motion of no confidence.
Helen Clark was in New Zealand the week before Mr Shearer resigned on August 22 and there was speculation she had discussed the need to change the leader with some MPs during that visit.
Yesterday it was also revealed party president Moira Coatsworth and general secretary Tim Barnett had travelled to Waihi to meet her at her father's house in the week before Mr Shearer stepped down.
Mr Barnett, who was a Labour MP when Helen Clark was PM, confirmed the trip but said it was usual to meet when she was in town.
"It would be a regular thing to do. She asked for an update on what was happening in the party. Nothing more than that."
Asked if they discussed Mr Shearer, he said it was "incidental to everything else really".
"She just wanted to get an update on what was going on ... ."
He said he had not known there were moves afoot to unseat Mr Shearer.
Helen Clark does get to vote on the leadership but has not publicly endorsed any of the three contestants, although David Cunliffe has said he was optimistic he had her vote.
Despite the assurances (read: "spin") from Mr Barnett and Ms Coatsworth, we have no doubt at all that Helen Clark was in some way involved. For a start, it totally contradicts a story in the Herald which we blogged about the day after Mr Shearer's resignation. Here's what the Herald said:Ms Street would not comment yesterday, but it is understood she decided to front the motion because of growing concerns among MPs over Mr Shearer's inability to fire as leader and his poor poll ratings.
A source said there had been discussions for months, but nobody was willing to force the issue until Ms Street stepped up.
One Labour source also said former Prime Minister Helen Clark had been "active" on the issue while in New Zealand over the past fortnight, speaking to some MPs about it.
It is not known if Mr Shearer knew the no-confidence motion was coming, although some MPs close to him had heard rumours of it.
The Labour Party hierarchy is clearly embarrassed at this revelation, and is trying to pretend that it never happened. Interestingly, we have also received e-mails from sources within the Labour Party, and let's just say that the version of events that has been supplied to us is not that of Tim Barnett and Moira Coatsworth.Labour is trying to make an art form of re-writing history. Just as the asset sales of the Rogernomics era never really happened, and just as Labour claims that Bill English inherited a healthy economy when in fact Treasury was forecasting a Decade of Deficits, Labour is now asking us to believe the unbelievable. But the only way that we would give the statement "Helen wasn't involved" would be if appeared on a Tui billboard.
Guess who was speaking in Nelson last night; Stuff reports:
Did Helen Clark know David Shearer was about to walk?
Last night the former prime minister seemed to take a swipe at Shearer as she recalled her own tough baptism in the 1990s and listed the qualities she thought a successful leader needed.
She didn't directly discuss Shearer's plight during an interview with the Nelson Mail, but her comments could be read as implicit criticism of his performance.
Clark, who was in Nelson to deliver last night's 70th Cawthron lecture, said: "I went through unhappy times. I remember Easter of the first year I was leader of the Opposition. The political editor of TVNZ went on the screen and said I wouldn't last the year. I eventually hit 2 per cent and the Labour Party polling went as low as 14 per cent. It's hard-hat time when this happens."
She said to survive that, "I had to have nerves of steel and believe that I was the right person for the job, and have a strategy to build back from there".
Self-belief and attractive, clear policy positions consistent with the party's position were required.
"It's hard work - very hard work. It's always the case that you can't work harder - you have to work smarter."
Clark also said it was a pity that the relationship between the Government and Labour had broken down over the GCSB bill, because in the past the major parties had been able to work together on the security services.
She had been both GCSB and SIS minister, and had also sat alongside then prime minister, National's Jenny Shipley, when the SIS legislation was reviewed.
"A lot of the things that I suggested got picked up. Traditionally there has been a lot of co-operation between the Government and the main opposition - but it requires both to walk some steps."
She said from her experience as a minister she could say "without equivocation" that the people in both agencies were very loyal and professional public servants.
"Secondly, we need them, because the world is not an innocent and happy place."
Third, when it was decided that the law needed to be changed, "I think things always go better if there's an ability to have an open dialogue across the parties".
We've heard a few interesting stories this afternoon. One of those is that serious change is afoot at the Labour Party HQ, Fraser House in Wellington. We've had it suggested to us that the jobs of Labour Party president Moira Coatsworth and general secretary Tim Barnett are on the line, and that Labour has been told that wholesale change is required.
Now whether Helen Clark has had anything at all to do with all this is at this point just speculation. But it is well known that she was not happy with the adversarial stance that Labour took over the rewrite of her GCSB legislation. That is borne out in the comments above.
Helen Clark may no longer be active in the Labour Party. But given that the party is stacked with people who she personally promoted, it would be naive to suggest that she no longer has any influence. We don't like Helen Clark's politics, but she is a formidable politician. It would not surprise us one iota if Miss Clark's cellphone had been working overtime over the last few days.
This one is from Josie Pagani, who probably would be the MP for Mana right now, had the Goffice not overridden the will of the Mana LEC at the 2010 by-election. Instead, Labour's Kris Faafoi turned one of Labour's safest seats into a marginal in 2011.
Here's what Josie Pagani has to say on Labour's proposed Man-Ban, via Stuff:
"I can't understand why the Labour Party would be emphasising something like this when they're trying to get the focus on jobs and power prices and the need to get wages up, so strategically it doesn't make sense to be talking about this right now."
She did not feel a need to be pushed forward as a candidate based on her gender.
"Certainly I wouldn't stand in a seat where I felt like the implication was I couldn't win it on my own accord without some 'special help'," she said.
"That's the thing about quotas - for me they are short-term measures, they're a kick-start when needed."
While there could be a need for quotas in countries such as Afghanistan - where women have been excluded from the political process - that was not the case in New Zealand.
"We absolutely need more women represented in Parliament - but we need a diverse section of women represented in Parliament - and I think that's more effective.
"I feel there needs to be a diverse range of women represented in political processes and in the Labour Party, but I think this is a blunt instrument."
This is incredibly dumb politics from Labour, and especially from the party's new general secretary Tim Barnett. What on earth is Labour thinking?
Girls can do anything. Quotas are demeaning, patronising and just plain stupid.UPDATE: Kudos to Josie Pagani; she has now confirmed that she will not stand for Labour again if the Man-Ban becomes a policy. That would be the Labour Party's loss.
