Labour leadership campaign – day five

Written By: - Date published: 8:54 am, September 4th, 2013 - 27 comments
Categories: david cunliffe, grant robertson, labour, Shane Jones, uncategorized - Tags:

Shane Jones Labour

Day five and the campaign heads off to Tauranga, Simon Bridges company.

The Radio New Zealand report of last night’s meeting in Napier says there were 250 in attendance.  This is a good result in an area which used to be solidly Labour but which since 2008 has been dominated by National.  Hopefully the local Labour organisations can build on this.

From the report it sounds like it was another happy positive event and everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to Shane Jones.  The candidates again tailored their speeches to refer to regional concerns, with Grant Robertson talking about the need for a Napier Gisborne Rail line and David Cunliffe talking about how Climate Change will make the East Coast drier and more difficult to farm.

The details of the meeting today are Wesley Centre, 100 13th Avenue, Tauranga.  The meeting is from 7 to 9 pm but you should get there early to confirm eligibility or to sign up if you are a new or renewing member.

The details about eligibility to attend are as before.

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. This can be done by clicking here.  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.

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

27 comments on “Labour leadership campaign – day five ”

  • Comments are now closed

  2. Pete 2
    4 September 2013 at 9:17 am

    Should party members have received voting papers by now? Mine hasn’t arrived yet.

  3. Tangee 3
    4 September 2013 at 9:18 am

    YAY Go David Cunliffe

  4. Linz 4
    4 September 2013 at 9:49 am

    You’ll like this:
    Brian Rudman: Key in for mauling as asset sales hit centre stage
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11118940

  5. Not A PS Staffer 5
    4 September 2013 at 10:57 am

    Mallard is up to his old games on behalf of the “The Old Firm” as they get very desperate at the success of Cunliffe.

    Mallard had Radio Live and the usual Wellington Journos repearting the line that Robertson has 2/3rds of the Caucus in the Bag! Farrar on Kiwiblog has a very different story. http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/

    That is like the bullshit the ABCs fed to the lazy jurnos that the EPMU was 100% behind Robertson. WRONG. If I was a EPMU delegate I’d vote against Robertson for that type of comtempt!

    • Bill 5.1
      4 September 2013 at 11:08 am

      On the kiwiblog list. He seems a bit uncertain about Curren’s support for Robertson. I can tell you she has emailed to ‘all and sundry’ that she backs Robertson.

      • Pete 5.1.1
        4 September 2013 at 4:33 pm

        If anything, I think Robertson will draw his highest proportion of member support from Dunedin. He’s got strong links with the city and the university and he’s been touching on regional development quite a bit, pointing to Kiwirail’s shenanigans with Hillside and Agresearch’s restructuring of Invermay. Hillside was a big issue that Curren highlighted. So I think Robertson ticks those boxes with her. I haven’t heard who David Clark is supporting, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he leaned towards Robertson. He studied at Otago when Robertson was the president of the students’ association.

        • Bill 5.1.1.1
          4 September 2013 at 4:39 pm

          Dunno about the member support, but caucus support, aye. Guess I’ll get a feel for member’s leanings come Sunday. But, y’know – Curren (by my understanding) is not the most popular of constituency mp’s…so I wouldn’t assume that the membership would do any ‘getting in behind’…no matter how much she may wish that to be the case with her email proclamation as to who she supports and offering to discuss (presumably) the why’s and wherefore’s with members.

          • Pete 5.1.1.1.1
            4 September 2013 at 4:44 pm

            I’ll be at Sunday’s meeting too. At present I have a strong inclination to vote as follows:

            1. Cunliffe
            2. Robertson
            3. Jones

            But I have to confess I wouldn’t be totally devastated by a Robertson victory.

            • hush minx 5.1.1.1.1.1
              4 September 2013 at 8:12 pm

              Hey Pete, One question that I’ve thought about but haven’t heard an answer to (and which might help clarify your thinking) is what have they learnt from past leaders and strategy teams that they would do differently – or the same. I worry that we may be destined to repeat old mistakes if we can’t pick what needs to change. Since 2008 it all seems to have been very much the old boys club with staffing and direction.
              Be keen to hear what you think of them!

              • Colonial Viper …
                4 September 2013 at 8:30 pm

                Lots has been learnt. Lots and lots and lots. IMO Cunliffe isn’t blowing smoke when he is talking about a new beginning for Labour.

          • Neoleftie 5.1.1.1.2
            4 September 2013 at 7:23 pm

            Yes as a loyal labour member I got email from Clare stating her intention and I also took up her offer to email to discuss her rational….no response, which is a shame as I have some respect for Clare curran’s conviction as true red and a champion of both the poor and unions.
            I too will be at the husting meeting in Dunedin on sunday, with an open mind and hopefully a question or two for David and Grant. Jones can get stuffed as simply a old hand trougher.

            I have one hope and this is our new leader champions and put into action a new pathway, a new way where the workers, the people of New Zealand and it environment are put before pure capitalistic profit driven elitism.
            So long live the coming revolution…

    • hush minx 5.2
      4 September 2013 at 8:22 pm

      Why does he have any credibility? He keeps getting stuff wrong (although I can’t blame him for trying to get his dream job of Speakers – but it’s a pretty soul destryong way to go about it).

  6. Bill 6
    4 September 2013 at 11:00 am

    Are any of the contenders focusing on who they are and what they are – as opposed what they would do on the policy front? I mean -what drives them? Why are they in politics and why, specifically, are they in the Labour Party?

    It seems that it’s only from an understanding of the above, that any reasonable sense of judgement can be applied to things they want to see happening. And telling us what they want to see or would like to work on is absolutely and completely different to making quasi policy announcements. And they shouldn’t be making policy announcements! How nice it would be to hear one of these gents proclaim that *this* is what they would want to work towards while explicitly acknowledging that everything on their wish list is utterly contingent upon the framework that will be presented to them by the membership and that they will, first and foremost, be working on ways to bring any membership desires into reality!

    But the straying into policy announcements (50% women…living wage, and whatever else may pop up) is a bit like stating you are going to score a hat-trick in some upcoming game of football. And that leads into a vacuous competition with one or the other saying “No! – It is me who’s going to score a hat-trick first!” And then the brainless ‘sound-bite’ media pack descends and a default defensive position has to be assumed as they grill on ‘What exactly did you mean’ and ‘Where are the costings?…etc

    How’s about a simple – “I’d like to score a hat-trick – I have my heart set on it” Then there is no one upmanship. (As the veracity of the claim can be judged against how convincing the ‘who’ and ‘what’ claims have been)

    And the media can be confronted on the front foot. It’s only a desire or a wish. Not a policy – as they are (yet again) contingent upon what the membership democratically decides the framework for policy to be.

    There you go. My tuppence worth rant. Gone for the day now.

  7. captain hook 7
    4 September 2013 at 11:26 am

    its not as much fun as a.j. lieblings book on Earl Longs last campaign.

  8. Clement Pinto 8
    4 September 2013 at 7:54 pm

    Any updates on the goings on at Tauranga meeting? Would be interesting to readall about it.

  9. phillip ure 9
    4 September 2013 at 8:48 pm

    with now a 3 degrees profile on the ‘joke’ candidate jones..

    ..going on the sheer amount of general corporate media coverage ..you’d think jones was a serious contender/front-runner..

    ..(instead of the beery-clown/stalking horse for the right that he is..)

    ..and the corporate-media coverage of cunnliffe..?..s.f.a..

    ..where are the profiles on the actual front-runner/peoples’ choice candidate..?

    ..going on that corporate-media coverage..you’d think that cunnliffe was the mcgillicudy serious party/rank-outsider unworthy of coverage/attention candidate of this race..

    ..this is a shocking display of rightwing bias by that media..

    ..with their muddying of the waters/peddling a rightwing message intentions/methods laid bare for all to see..

    ..those who are so bought..they should be in wrapping-paper..

    ..phillip ure..

    • phillip ure 9.1
      4 September 2013 at 9:44 pm

      and what an astonishing piece it was..

      ..how did they manage that..?

      ..a profile on the aspirant for a political role..

      ..in the middle of an election campaign for that role..

      ..that was politics-free…

      ..whoar..!

      ..corporate-media sets another benchmark..?

      ..phillip ure..

  10. lurgee 10
    4 September 2013 at 9:18 pm

    Other promises, such as the vow by Mr Robertson to field 50 per cent female candidates at the next election, could come at a high personal cost to some of the party’s sitting MPs, particularly men who don’t have a safe seat. Ensuring 50 per cent of candidates are women would put pressure on the list places of the likes of former Waimakariri MP Clayton Cosgrove.

    Is this a good thing? What are Cunliffe’s branes on this?

    I think we know Shane Jones’ views.

  11. North 11
    4 September 2013 at 9:45 pm

    Hope this is in the right place. Tonight TV3 launched the most unabashed tele-hagiography of Shane Jones.

    If Cunliffe wins the leadership he’ll win in 2014. Shane Jones will simply have to go. Number 99 on the List. He would deserve it.

    Strange. TV3 has never shown concern about Bronagh Key’s decision (rightly her’s alone) to retain her privacy. In fact (rightly) the broad media has respected her decision.

    What’s up TV3/Guyon ?

  12. Comrade Coba 12
    4 September 2013 at 10:04 pm

    Funny the longer the show goes on more I’m starting to have doubts. I’ve talked to all 3 of them, too be fair Jones the least, however he did have the ability to connect in a similar way Helen could. Robertson had the real civil servant feel which was plainly false. Cunliffe to a crowd is great one on one he can rub you the wrong way. I see why some people working in a team find him so frustratingly irritable. I guess not getting that close to them and working with people around them is the way to go.

  13. hush minx 13
    5 September 2013 at 8:28 am

    Hey Comrade Coba, Up the top of my list would be who has the ability to win! Part of it must be the connection factor but that wasn’t Helen’s strength when she started. Actually all 3 candidates habe the ability to rub people up the wrong way.

    We also need someone to do things differently. The last 20 months, and the last 3 years before that has seen Labour disappear – complete with the Greens becoming the go to party for media. That was more than just Shearer, so there needs to be some shaking up!

    • karol 13.1
      5 September 2013 at 8:33 am

      Russell Norman was treated as a joke by the media to start with. Things can change.

      As far as I can see, the main people Cunliffe “rubs up the wrong way” are the past-their-use-by-date caucus members.

  14. s y d 14
    5 September 2013 at 9:24 am

    The Tauranga meeting was interesting. 120 odd people there and, I felt, a real sense that something important was happening. All 3 spoke well and were well received – but I really think the thing that struck me was how little we ever get to see or hear from the Labour Party in the Bay.
    Heres hoping that will change

  15. Tracey 15
    5 September 2013 at 9:27 am

    even veiled comparissons of jones to Clark are mispalced in my opinion. He is no helen clark and I dont mean stature or achievement I mean world view and outlook.