Jordan on Labour’s future
May 13th, 2009 at 2:02 pm by David FarrarJordan Carter has done an excellent post on Labour’s future. First he notes the comments of two lefties – Tane:
Labour, on the other hand, just seems utterly bereft of vision. In the midst of the greatest economic crisis of our age, when they should be putting forward a bold alternative vision, Labour doesn’t seem have a clue where it’s going. Their miserable poll ratings don’t so much represent a rejection of their platform as a complete lack of relevance.
and Danyl:
I’d argue that left-wing bloggers are more relevant now than ever since they’re now in a position to critique the government instead of apologise for it, and the primary left-wing party is off on it’s own, weird journey into political irrelevance and oblivion leaving a great void for progressive voices to fill.
Jordan comments:
I am always interested when I read comments like this. Part of the purpose of the Labour Party is to be a credible voice for progressive politics that progressive people regard as being on the right track.It seems obvious in retrospect that our alliance with Winston Peters and NZ First in the last Parliament did some serious harm to that part of Labour’s reputation, both with non-aligned progressives and particularly with supporters of the Green Party. The Labour leadership made a call about the stability and sustainability of the government it wanted to run, and we now live with the consequences.
I won’t declare I am happy with the state of Labour. Who could be right now?
We got beaten in last year’s election for five or six broadly credible and understandable reasons. We face the unpleasant and somewhat daunting task of rebuilding our party, our policy agenda and our reputation in the face of a very popular government that people think is quite centrist. And we do so having baggage with both of the political parties with whom we will need to build rapport and support to form a government in the future.
When we have got it right, bloggers like Tane and blogs like Dim Post will be supporting, or supportive of, Labour. Labour will be in the lead in the polls. Labour will have strong and deep political relationships with other parties of the centre and left that will allow it to form a government.
What would that Labour Party look like? It will be an open and energised organisation, with a big membership and good resources – staff, dollars, communications collateral etc. It will be an organisation where people know they can debate issues and express different points of view and that in so doing, their contribution will be respected. It will be deeply connected to the communities it seeks to represent and will have an authentic voice when speaking for them.
A nice aspiration.
This is the greatest opportunity that social democracy has had since the 1930s to build a new consensus around building a more egalitarian, more human society. Labour has to rise to the challenge.
The challenge I ask progressive readers of this blog to consider is this: what are you going to do to make that happen?
May 13th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
A good start for Labour (and indeed National plenty of the time) would be in Mt Albert over the tunnel.
There was a recognised need for it decades ago and land provision made. Labour promoted the idea of a tunnel, so it already accepted there was a vital need from a local and national pov.. the $3+ billion it was prepared to spend attests to that.
However, it was balancing just a handful of homes against a savings of nearly $2 billion and is currently campaigning on what is effectively an either underground or nothing scenario.
If you think about it, this is, and was, a total failure to understand the dual local and national role of the MP. Theres a route needed there that must be accomplished, the local MP should agree with it and the $1.8 billion saving and then working his/her butt off to ensure that the homeowners are not victims, but come off better for having their houses demolished.
The demolition value of those houses is $7.5 million each in savings.. that is a huge pot of gold that a smart and ethical MP could work to compensate the homeowners. Say the houses are worth $300,000 each.. I’d be working to get those homeowners $600,000 in compensation so they could buy elsewhere mortgage free plus have several hundred thousand in the bank.. problem solved all round and the MP and his party get the kudos.
JC
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Oh, Its not comment from a recent divorcee on the rorting of electorate expenses
, never mind
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
with Russ the Mus nipping rabidly at their heels Labour has little option but to present this as Tunnel vs Destroying a Community.
I would have been more impressed if Shearer had come out and said – the tunnel would cost more money, money that could be spent eslewhere, but I believe it would be best spent on a tunnel.
from there one could argue about if that money could be better spent or not. but to maintain that $500 million is of no consequence is madness.
both National and Labour want to complete Auckland’s motorway network. It’s unfortunate that this piece of uncompleted motorway is where it is. It’s not Labour’s fault but it just happens to have been in the electorate of Helen Clark and for good reason they were perpared ot pay what ever it cost to avoid a nasty showdown with voters in Mt Albert.
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
And the mess Labour finds itself in is the exact reason why Helen Clark should not be given the mantle of have been a great leader.
Quite simply she left it (Labour) in a worse condition than she got it in.
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
“And the mess Labour finds itself in is the exact reason why Helen Clark…”
it could just have easily happened to National and they would have done much the same. But at present Labour is stuck and National has the option and obligation of looking at the larger fiscal picture – which has changed dramatically in the last year.
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
What Tane, Danyl and Jordan seem unwilling to admit (or at least have failed to mention) is that Labour fell into the same trap as the Alliance and NZ First, and for the same reasons. A “strong” (read pigheaded) leader who’ll brook no debate and centralises all decision making is initially seductive. No messing round in committees, no having to consult widely, just one phone call and the decision’s made. Things move forward quickly and efficiently, and many happen to be the right decisions (though many are not and, with no democratic feedback, they are forced through). But as long as the polls hold up things seem fine.
Meanwhile the party grassroots either never flourish (in the case of Peters) or wither and die (as with Anderton). Casual supporters gradually get sick of being unquestioning members of a cargo cult, and go off to do something else. Slowly the true believers (in the party’s principle) become disillusioned and walk away too, leaving only those who worship the Great Leader. But by that time the empire they once ruled is in flames around them, so they bugger off (to obscurity and a nice pension, another party, or a cushy UN job) leaving their followers shell shocked.
It remains to be seen whether the conversion of the Labour Party into Helen First is reversible. Given the integrity and dedication of many of those on the left it probably is, but only because the brand history and recognition are worth slightly more than the negative connotations that now surround the name… otherwise I suspect they’d probably be inclined to start something new.
The irony is that most of those on the left now surveying the ruins of their once great party would never accept the blame lies with someone they still blindly believe to have been one of NZ’s greatest Prime Ministers.
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Excellent analysis Rex
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
“This is the greatest opportunity that social democracy has had since the 1930s to build a new consensus around building a more egalitarian, more human society.”
Oh shit, it looks like they are going to give it another go.
The problem with zealots like Jordan is that they think that the only problem with central planning was that they never found the right plan.
Jordan Carter, Man of System.
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Tane: In the midst of the greatest economic crisis of our age, when they should be putting forward a bold alternative vision,
I think Tane fails to realise that Labour were the ones that made sure NZ was ill prepared for these tough times. And they have no alternative, cause to have one would be to admit their last nine years with blinkers on imagining that there would never be a rainy day.
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Hear, hear Rex, and eloquent summary. I’d also add that the Labour “activists” might have been better able to mobilise the left vote if the party hadn’t decided it would only speak to and for liberal university graduates. They have gone so far offside with the average working Kiwi that their coming around the other side, but their overweening arrogance won’t let them see this or admit it.
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
This is easily the most sensible stuff I’ve seen from Jordan. Good on him for saying it. I don’t read him given the sheer volume of inanity from him in years past – but if he is willing to continue being insightful and willing to call a spade a spade and to not argue black’s white whenever it is politically convenient then I for one will listen.
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Nice post Rex – being a labour supporter – sitting on the market liberal part of the party (although I didnt vote for them at the last election due to the EFB and losing the plot re some reallocation policies (ie Working for the families is the most inefficient way of distributing income it is insanity -> 25% of tax collected goes to the costs of running the IRD + the cost of WFTF. Would of made more sense for an increase in the bottom tax rates margins + have a reduced effective tax rate increas on earnings which is currently at redicolous levels for families) I do agree re some of your points, although I do think she was a strength in her first term and to an extent in the second. It was the third where the old saying came to fruitition.
However those saying Labour is destroyed, do remember old National after they got evicted 9 and a bit years ago, National was demolished and their polls were appalling, it does often happen after 9 or so years in power. Took along time for them to find their place as well, they ‘could’ of won the previous election if they had found a leader who was prepared to state what he actually believed, and didnt sell every value he once held for the red neck vote.
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Bugger – I had hoped they would spend at least one term in total denial and still blaming the evil John Key but this mini uprising could see them a force to reckoned with come 2014…
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
So poor old Jordan is doing some soul searching, bit late now. I love the bit about “social democracy” a real oxymoron coming from a leading Liarbore commentator. Since when has any form of democracy been high on a communist’s wish list. As for Jordan’s “egalitarian society” ha ha ha ha, surly he jests, as all good communists know some are more equal then others. Quite frankly I would be happy if Jordan not include me in his next society when we all become “equal”.
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
1. Tunnel is a side show (much like liarbore) and has been for the entire western loop project which has been dragging on for far too long. In short Liabore politicised and delayed a much needed public works project by about 5 years in order to feather dear leaders nest.
2 It is good to see Liarbore finally admit what I have been saying since before the elction – Labour are more irrelevant than the Greens. Ha ha ha.
3. I look forward to te substandards constructive development of liarbore policy, once they have saved auckland tax takers from the evils of the supercity.
4. It would pay national to focus on wider ranging community issues in mt albert. Tunnel affects a few hundred people most of whom are not tax payers and therefore wont vote national anyway.
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Methinks Mallard is thinking about rolling Goff for the leadership – he is by far the most active on their Red Alert page trying to get a handle on what future Labour direction should be. Also the right hate him, an essential badge of honour & credibility.
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
I think the right just pity Trevor these days, as you say he’s tied to the dead rat that is the modern liarbore party. A dead rat that I may add (yes you may, go ahead) was co-created (although not in conjunction with either the Maori or Green parties) by Trevor during the Helcion (arf arf) days.
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
After a brief trip to NZ recently, it was interesting to spend some time with a former Labour insider. He was even more scathing than Jordan and summed up Labour’s plight thus:
1 – Goff’s office is poorly run and cannot get their message straight.
2 – No one has rolled Goff because there is no one to replace him – Mallard (with Dyson and others close behind) is being gingerly positioned for rehabilitation and an eventual tilt at the leadership if his bovver boy past can be airbrushed over enough.
3 – Clark’s ruthless supression of dissent has left the front bench bereft of new vigorous policy initiatives.
4 – There is still a pervasive sense throughout the Parliamentary and non Parliamentary Labour party that National won simply because the voters thought it was time to let them have a turn – the voters were merely became tired of Labour after 9 years and couldn’t possibly be actually opposed to some of their policies.
5 – There is no one on the front bench even remotely connected to the reality of why Labour lost – there is no taking responsibility for the caustic erosion of freedom embodied in the EFA, no realisation of the disgust at Clark and her colleagues over the pledge card rort and absolutely no capacity to understand why middle NZ got fed up with nanny state interferences such as the smacking law change and mindless attempts to regulate school tuck shops, light bulbs and shower nossles.
6 – Because Clark did not brook dissent then there was no one in the senior ranks of the party who had the guts to tell Clark that Mike William’s pathetic fishing trip in Melbourne was a gold medal political clanger.
7- For the same reason no one could or would tell Clark the reality of the terrible damage her failure to deal to Winston Peter’s increasingly bizarre and corrupt behaviour had on Labour’s electoral standing.
This person has an acute and well honed political antenna and said that if National carry on without any major slip ups and Labour remained mired in denial about why they lost, he forsaw an easy 3 term National Government under Key!
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
But the Labour Party is NOT progressive. It staunchly defends the notion that the default option is the State does everything. That there should be state monopolies for essential services with a highly unionised workforce, and centralised pay fixing. None of that is progressive. On a some social issues the record of the Labour Party is mixed at best, timid is probably more accurate. Helen Clark allowed one “progressive” social issue per parliament because that is all she figured the public would tolerate. They talk about an independent foreign policy but what that really means is a freedom to be outspoken – a kind of protest foreign policy. But they fall into line when security is really at stake but only after goodwill has been firmly tested.
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
“What would that Labour Party look like? It will be a closed and secret organisation, with a telephone box membership, they can debate issues and express exactly the same points of view and that in so doing, their loyalty will be demanded. It will be deeply connected to the party and union headoffices.”
So really nothing will change.
Vote:May 13th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
I do not buy Jordans crocodile tears. People have been telling him for years, many much more eloquent than myself, that he was talking out of his ass about his “social democratic” dream for NZ. Labour aren’t progressive – nor are their policies. Jordans just running scared because he knows Labour is going to tear itself up once the leftwing of the party gets sick of Goffs push to go centrist. How can you have Goff, who is by all means not entirely unreasonable, running the party and yet the president of the militant EPMU job sharing as their party President?
He is just writing something to nail his colours to either mast when the bloodshed ends…although we know that with Jordans dislike of business and private enterprise which side he would like to win.. and that is nothing even remotely close to progressive.
Vote:May 14th, 2009 at 7:32 am
Jordan should bloody well piss off to somewhere his anti-business paradigm is appreciated. North Korea.
Smarmy little fuckwit that he is. Please Mr Shearer notice me, I’m relevant. Like fucking hell.
Vote: