Labour Leadership Campaign – days six and seven

Written By: - Date published: 8:42 am, September 5th, 2013 - 32 comments
Categories: david cunliffe, grant robertson, labour, Shane Jones - Tags:

Cunliffe day 3 leaders campaign-8

The candidates are half way through their whirlwind tour of the country.  They have a meeting in Hamilton tonight and then tomorrow they will have what I am sure will be a welcome day off before they move to Wellington and the South.

Last night they met in Tauranga, an area that is not friendly to the Labour Party.  The seat of Tauranga itself is deep blue and Tony Ryall’s surrounding seat of Bay of Plenty is deepest, deepest blue.  Radio New Zealand reported that there were 150 in attendance which for the area is a good result.

Fatigue is obviously kicking in.  The candidates are putting in long hours and dealing with a number of matters on the fly.  When you think about the truncated nature of the campaign their efforts are commendable.

Two of the candidates have even been able to produce campaign videos.

Grant Robertson’s is below.

And here is David Cunliffe’s video.

I am not aware of Shane Jones having a campaign video although TV3 has helpfully provided him with some footage in the 3rd degree show last night.

A virtual meeting has been scheduled.  Details are here.  Questions can be emailed in now by party members and affiliate delegates.  The meeting itself will occur over four days from 10th to 13th September.  It will take place on the Red Alert blog, where discussion will occur over the answers provided by candidates to the featured questions. Candidates will be invited to participate in this discussion.  The video follows:

And tonight’s meeting is at Te Rapa Racecourse Centennial Lounge in Hamilton. It kicks of at 7 pm.

As previously stated people entitled to attend include members, former members as long as they sign up again and new members who sign up at the door.

Media can attend but for the preliminaries and the speeches only.

If you are going you should get to the meeting early as there will be a vetting process and this could take some time. People should bring their membership cards or ortherwise photo ID so that they can be identified. Photos and social media can be taken and used during the open part of the meeting.

And a reminder that current members and those who have been financial members of the Party sometime between January 1 2011 and August 22 2013 but have not yet paid their membership for 2013 can renew their membership and vote, so long as they do so before 12.00am on Friday 6 September.  New members will not be able to vote.

Finally for your vote to count you will have to list all candidates in preference. The second preferences of the third ranked candidate will then be distributed amongst the other candidates.  There is an online voting option that works well and I recommend this.

And just in case anyone is not aware of this I am a supporter of David Cunliffe and a member of his LEC.

32 comments on “Labour Leadership Campaign – days six and seven ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Linz 1
    5 September 2013 at 8:57 am

    Report in the Tauranga rag: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503343&objectid=11119875
    Also this: Who’s your pick to take over as Labour’s leader?
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11119467
    Currently Cunliffe: 20% the other two 40%, but less than 50 votes so far.
    Thanks to everyone for keeping us in touch with what’s happening. Living out in the sticks in the Otago electorate, I really appreciate it.

    • karol 1.1
      5 September 2013 at 9:25 am

      Curiously, the (apparently) same poll opposite Claire Trevett’s rumour-mongering article, has Cunliffe in the lead, with Robertson 3rd, after 300-350 votes – while at the same time, the same poll beside the editorial, has still not changed from 50 votes.

      • karen 1.1.1
        5 September 2013 at 9:36 am

        There’s a weird thing going on where you have to vote on the editorial page, where Cunliffe is shown as being well behind, and this vote does not change while on Claire’s page it does. The Herald are very anti-Cunliffe and it is showing up elsewhere with a caucus support indicator putting a number of “not saying” as part of Robertson’s support. Twyford is being put as definitely supporting Robertson when he said he wouldn’t say, and I suspect actually supports Cunliffe.

    • Clement Pinto 1.2
      5 September 2013 at 10:35 am

      The votes have changed at NZ Herald now as follows: Cunliffe is leading.

      700–750 votes

      David Cunliffe 46%
      Grant Robertson 21%
      Shane Jones 33%

      • Clement Pinto 1.2.1
        5 September 2013 at 8:35 pm

        RESULT NOW:

        1250–1300 votes

        David Cunliffe 48%
        Grant Robertson 21%
        Shane Jones 31%

        I wonder if Cunliffe will crack the 50% mark by tomorrow on that site!

        • Clement Pinto 1.2.1.1
          6 September 2013 at 5:12 pm

          Update now:

          1500–1550 votes:

          David Cunliffe 49%
          Grant Robertson 21%
          Shane Jones 30%

          Cunliffe hasn’t reached 50% yet! May have to wait for the 15th Sept!

  2. karol 2
    5 September 2013 at 9:04 am

    Hmmm. Two contrasting campaign videos:

    I’m not sure about the whole thing of Robertson being driven around in a car, with a back/side view of him talking – reminds me of Key’s 2008 election video. And Robertson’s values were mostly framed as his values. It’s meant to position him as looking out on the whole of NZ – but from the comfort of his car passenger seat? And he ends with a Norman Kirk quote. And the vid just seems to roll on, and becomes a bit boring.

    Cunliffe’s video has him filling the frame, in clear focus, talking directly to camera – makes him look authoritative. While doing that, his whole pitch is framed as being part of Labour’s collective, harking back to the Savage Labour government. Simple vid, shortish, sharp and dynamic.

  3. David H 3
    5 September 2013 at 9:06 am

    Hmmmm, whats that saying again? Oh yes. A picture, is worth a thousand words.

    • fender 3.1
      5 September 2013 at 11:09 am

      +1
      Poor Jones has fallen asleep, it’s pretty sapping burning the candle at both ends. Have some sympathy for him, he’s probably got a couple of hours of movie reviews ahead of him after the meeting.

  4. bad12 4
    5 September 2013 at 9:28 am

    ”We need to be a Strong,True, Red, Labour Party, not some pale blue imitation of National”, unquote David Cunliffe,

    Nice quote and good Journalism from Sonya Bateson of the Bay of Plenty Times, reporting the event and not telling us how She thinks we should think…

  5. Linz 5
    5 September 2013 at 9:30 am

    Re Grant Robertson’s video: I tuned out after a minute. I suppose the hand-held camera thing was meant to give a sense of being there, but it just made me feel seasick. Also it showed that Grant waddles. Not good.
    David Cuncliffe’s was much better, but he came dangerously close to going over the top. Nevertheless, great practice for the real battle in 2014.

    • Greywarbler 5.1
      5 September 2013 at 9:48 am

      Grant’s face looks like that of another fat-cat businessman. Thick neck. full cheeks, dairy fed.
      Bullish – but talking up a volatile market is not what NZ needs even if it yet doesn’t know what it wants.

      Shane Jones, affable and jokey and well-known. Like Ronald Reagan. Not what NZ needs, or Labour actually – actually anathema.

      David Cunliffe stands out like a high sunflower over any other tall poppy. His hard working achieving background in so many areas of the world and social and economic activity is what Key should have to be in his position. But hasn’t. End of story.

    • amirite 5.2
      5 September 2013 at 1:56 pm

      +1
      near the end of his video, Cunliffe starts sounding like John Campbell!!! 🙂

  6. Cemetery Jones 6
    5 September 2013 at 10:14 am

    Meanwhile it looks like Trougher Mallard has been getting his money’s worth: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11119469

  7. Ron 7
    5 September 2013 at 10:31 am

    I am not terribly impressed with any of the videos but guess that it has been done on the cheap which is fair enough.
    What I would like to see is some definite policies of what each person would like to see implemented under their leadership.
    Of course real policies should be coming up through the policy groups and we don’t want to tip our hand to early but the sort of thing I would love to see a candidate say would be like this
    A Labour Government would :
    1. Instruct Kiwi Rail to purchase future requirement of rolling stock from within NZ. This might mean resurrecting Hillside or whatever but we need to set a firm mark in the sand of what we stand for. If we need new train sets they should be built in NZ with help from overseas suppliers if necessary.
    2. A Royal Commission should be setup to look at Gambling in NZ Especially to look at the prevalence of casinos, pokie machines in fact the whole compass of Gambling looking at how it affects NZ people the possible gains we make out of Gambling the harm it may do to society and even look at the possibility that if we have to have Gambling should it be controlled by the Crown as in TAB. It is well and truly time that we look at the whole business and of course Sky City and other casinos should be included in the review.
    3. The same Commission type review of the Liquor industry looking at harm that it does to our society and also benefits if any. We have experts like Doug Sellman et al putting forward good suggestions for limiting the harm and then having National watering down the proposals at the behest of the Liquor industry. It is time society had the chance to see just what harm unfettered access to alcohol is doing to our people.
    4. Remove the SOE and CROC CRI’s etc from statute and go back to Government Departments. I see no point in removing what is obviously a Government owned service from direct state control. At least when NZ Post, NZ Rail etc were Departments we had a minister who had to take responsibility for that department. If they stuffed up the minister would carry the can. That is why the earn more than an ordinary MP.
    I could probably go on for ever with suggestions but I think it is time to say enough is enough and lets get some semblance of control back of departments and stop telling what should be crown bodies that they have to make a profit. There job is to provide a service to the people of NZ within the budgets set by parliament.

    • bad12 7.1
      5 September 2013 at 10:56 am

      Your point (1), i think is pretty much policy where all Government contracts will be reviewed with a view that New Zealand based firms who employ New Zealander’s with pay rates of the ‘living wage’ or above being at the head of the queue in securing such lucrative work,

      The managers of Government Ministry’s should all be tasked with going through their spending line by line and repatriating any work currently being undertaken by overseas contractors for the Government,

      There are multi-Billions of dollars of Government contracts that are currently in the hands of overseas suppliers and repatriating all these contracts will give a huge boost to employment in this country,

      Kiwibank should be readied to take over the Governments banking at the point the contract with Westpac expires which would give ‘our’ bank a huge boost,

      At the least there should be a national conference of New Zealand’s IT providers, while one provider may not be of a size so as to be able to take up major Government contracts a consortium of some/many of them i am sure would have the collective skills to do such…

      • Ron 7.1.1
        5 September 2013 at 10:59 am

        Yes Yes. We also own a very good IT company Kordia which I am sure that it will be getting ready for sale under the present regime. It should have been handling the fibre rollout not Telecom.
        It should not be sold.

        • bad12 7.1.1.1
          5 September 2013 at 11:11 am

          Aha, to take that one step further the next Labour lead Government should look at when letting ‘it’s contracts building the capacity necessary in New Zealand to carry out any and all the Government’s ‘work’…

  8. karol 8
    5 September 2013 at 10:43 am

    When does voting finish? And when is the new leader likely to be announced?

  9. the pigman 9
    5 September 2013 at 7:26 pm

    So, about that Shane Jones 3rd degree video… anyone else think the last couple of minutes is really quite devious?

    I keep wondering if I’m just being precious, but really, I mean, making the phone call in front of the camera crew so that Garner and Espiner (G) can have their little speculative segue?

  11. Saarbo 11
    5 September 2013 at 10:48 pm

    I just attended the Hamilton Meeting, very enjoyable. Basically what I saw is 3 people selling the Labour Party and its policies…certainly cementing in the Policy Platform, which is why this is such a great process. Full credit to all involved.

    David Cunliffe is clearly the only one of the three that could become a 3 term + Prime Minister. He presented in his authentic, enthusiastic and clever way, he provided original ideas and thoughts. He just displays leadership in my opinion. Shane Jones reckons he would attract the 800k+ people who didnt vote in 2011, and I think he possibly could do that, but I’d say we may lose a few votes as well, great speaker. Robertson needs more experience in my view, he comes across as a nice guy but we all know that 2014 is going to be decided on the Economy, his lack of experience outside of parliament will mean that he is useless in conveying how Labour will compete against National in this area, while Cunliffe’s BCG experience will mean National will struggle against him, they always have hence their fear. I also have a problem with Robertson suddenly enthusiastically rejecting “neo liberal philosophy”, when he so quickly made clear post Power NZ announcement, this was the only time Labour would interfere with the free markets, this does not equate for me.

    Anyway a great process, apparently membership is up 15% since Shearer announced his resignation. My bet is that if Cunliffe is made leader and some of the ABC deadwood resign, Labour membership will increase 200%.

  12. Salmon 12
    6 September 2013 at 11:59 am

    I am really enjoying this leadership contest. It’s reminded me why I joined Labour is the first place. After a number of years of feeling a little disappointed in the whole thing, I have new passion for getting us elected in 2014. I finally feel like we can make a real difference if we do.

    So much so, I’ve finally decided to post on this blog!

    For my 2cents, Grant and David have both been doing a good job. We can win with both and I’d be proud to be a member with both as our leader. My preference is for Grant. I just think he has the most authentic voice. I really feel like he means what he says and I think that will come across to NZers too. David is articulate and I like what he says, but I can’t shake the feeling he is being disingenuous. Maybe it’s left over from what we thought about him during the Clark years. If he wins, he’ll have the chance to prove me wrong. He’s my second preference.

  13. odysseus 13
    6 September 2013 at 6:53 pm

    When / where is the Wellington meeting?

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.