Armstrong on Labour
December 12th, 2009 at 8:56 am by David FarrarJohn Armstrong writes:
What is really going on inside the Labour Party caucus? The show of unity following Tuesday’s discussion on the negative fall-out from Phil Goff’s “nationhood” speech did not quite square with some rather odd happenings the next day.
For starters, there was Goff’s opting out of Wednesday’s question time in Parliament. The Labour leader delegated his usual role of questioning the Prime Minister to his deputy, Annette King. That may not seem a big deal. But the ritual nature of parliamentary warfare dictates that party leader take on party leader.
I presume it was because they knew Goff would get so many hassles about delivering a speech neither he nor his Caucus believes in.
Amid all this, Parliament’s finance and expenditure select committee was treated to some extraordinary theatrics from Labour finance spokesman David Cunliffe at its meeting on Wednesday. Cunliffe’s attempted interrogation of Finance Minister Bill English was Perry Mason mixed with Basil Fawlty – cringe-making and hugely embarrassing.
Hmmn had not heard about this. Will be great if the Office of the Clerk can arrange for Parliament TV to also cover select committees.
Trevor Mallard, Labour’s education spokesman, may find Education Minister Anne Tolley easy meat. But the end-game here should be the huge segment of middle-of-the-road voters worried about what kind of education their children are getting – not the teacher unions whose opposition to national testing is driven by self-interest.
The unions’ supposed concern that schools in poor areas will be stigmatised by failing to meet standards is a cynical cover for their real worry – that teachers’ inadequacies will be exposed by league tables which will show exactly which schools in richer areas are failing to deliver for their pupils.
The smart, though admittedly brave, move for Goff would have been to endorse national standards and even raise the benchmarks for satisfactory performance. In one swoop, that would have outflanked National and nullified Labour’s image of political correctness.
Mallard’s onslaught on Tolley means that opportunity has passed.
I think education could be a real battleground issues next election, and that parents will overwhelmingly be on the side of the party wanting them to know how their kids are doing.
Labour this year has only caused National any grief on three issues – emissions trading, ACC and cutbacks to night-class education.
I don’t quite agree here.
National has taken some hits on emissions trading I believe – but from its own supporters for doing anything at all, rather than from the left for not doing more.
There has been some grief around ACC relating to specific stuff like motorcyclists, but Labour has totally lost the argument over the unsustainable nature of the status quo. In 2011 I think ACC will be a negative for Labour as people will be reminded of the mess they left.
And on night-class education, those protesting have been the providers and a few others. I think the vast majority of NZers have been appalled to find out that they had been paying taxes to subsidise silk scarf painting courses and the like.
National’s Tony Ryall summed it up on Wednesday when he said Labour was suffering from RDS – “relevance deprivation syndrome”.
The term may have been coined by Australia’s former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, but the Health Minister’s diagnosis was spot-on.
In short, Labour is desperately hunting for relevance and hurting badly in not finding it.
To be fair to Labour, most parties in opposition can struggle with that for some time.
Tags: John Armstrong, Labour
December 12th, 2009 at 9:05 am
The edukayshin sistem does need a huge kick in the arse. In my line of work we have a regular stream of young fellas helping out as labourers / trade assistants and by my reckoning about 1 in 3 are almost completely illiterate. It’s a disgrace, some of these blokes can’t even read the numbers off a tape measure for fuck sake.
December 12th, 2009 at 9:17 am
This is simplistic. There are two broad categories of parents:
- those who want to be told how well their child is doing
- those who couldn’t give a stuff how badly their child is doing
The quality of education of all kids is dragged down by kids who don’t want to learn and are disruptive – how is standards testing going to do anything about that? Apart from proving that some kids are already destined to fail.
December 12th, 2009 at 9:26 am
When considering both current polling and Labour’s (lack of) potential to threaten at the next election, it’s easy to see why National’s biggest issue is its continued failure to meet the expectations of a decent chunk of its supporter base. Playing to the middle is expedient at times, but seems unnecessary at this time.
December 12th, 2009 at 9:45 am
DPF, if you’re looking for Cunliffe at the F&E committee, Ratesblog has the video:
http://www.interest.co.nz/ratesblog/index.php/2009/12/11/alan-bollard-talks-to-the-finance-and-expenditure-committee-about-monetary-policy-the-ocrs-effectiveness-and-the-nz-economy
Cunliffe starts his cross-examination five minutes into the first vid.
(Edit) Oops, that Cunliife/Bollard not Cunliffe/English.
Vote:December 12th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Labour is on the wrong side of the argument on acc and education. On Acc just what is Labours policy. Do nothing??? – yes please let the stinking mess fall over. On education the Teachers’ Unions will resist anything that makes them more accountable to parents and any system that aims to get rid of the duds, druggies and sexo’s. And Teaching has plenty of those.
December 12th, 2009 at 10:13 am
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Unpopular. Like or Dislike:December 12th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Five letters will undermine any attempt by Labour to limit its culpability over ACC
P-R-E-F-U
December 12th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Sad but true. Except in most cases l would blame their parents. The schools that those kids come from would also have turned out plenty of students who can read and write fine.
I regularly hear about kids starting school who don’t know the alphabet, can’t count and in some cases don’t know the names for colours or shapes. Teachers aren’t miracle workers. And frankly, if you’ve got 30 kids in the class, how much time do you have to work with a kid whose own parents can’t even be bothered to teach them anything, except maybe a contempt for education and authority?
Vote:December 12th, 2009 at 10:54 am
The first part of your statement is correct – and has been for ages. The second bit, about proving that some kids are destined to fail is defeatism on steroids. Why should your low expections of some limit the potential of the rest?
Vote:December 12th, 2009 at 10:57 am
I’m only going my own school experience as our kids aren’t at school yet, but what happened to the old-school way for finding out how your kids are doing? I.e. the report card and going to the parent-teacher evening as asking “How is Johnny doing?”
It doesn’t surprise me that a lot of teachers leave the profession or go overseas. They get students who have no support or aspirations from their parents, 30-to-a-class and then condemned for not turning them all into A-grade students.
Vote:December 12th, 2009 at 11:05 am
I was meaning what Malcolm also alluded to – some kids have pretty much lost their chance before they get to school. Parents are more important for education than teachers. And some parents don’t do anything, hence some kids are destined to illiteracy unless the school can identify them and have the resources to override the learnt disdain for learning.
Vote:December 12th, 2009 at 11:38 am
This education subject is dear to my heart for various reasons. Anyway DPF has just done another posting which is better for this education talk.
Vote:December 12th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Labour is in disarray for a variety of reasons including a Leader who struggles to get traction. Politics is littered with names of those who were ‘competent’ (relative term) Ministers who didn’t cut the mustard on the leadership front … Marshall. McClay (undermined by Muldoon, Palmer, English and now whatshisname.
And what is suprising too is that the Parties on the left (Greens/Progressives) haven’t appeared to benefit from the fall in Labour support. Contrast that with what ACT and Dunne’s mob picked up when National was in the sort of mess that Labour finds itself in right now.
Funny game politics.
Vote:December 12th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
This was a huge fail in my opinion. If Phil couldn’t handle the jandal then what was he even doing there?
With regards to Phil’s controversial National-hood speech – I was initially suspicious that Andrew Little’s criticism was designed to bring more media attention to the speech. But it has now become apparent no such Machiavellian forces are at work and someone should put a tent over the Labour Party circus.
Vote:December 12th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
The significance of that shouldn’t be underestimated. The job of a politician is different to most. When they succeed they are at the top of the pile, they have power, prestige, privileges, and are in the spotlight. Then suddenly, literally overnight, they drop to the bottom. It must be a huge adjustment to make, individually and collectively.
Without experiencing this elevation then sudden deflation it is hard to appreciate the adjustment necessary. Especially when you are also subjected to sustained derision.
But, that’s the nature of the game, they somehow have to deal with it and gradually work themselves back in to relevance. Or give up.
Vote:December 12th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Pete @ 11:05 – fair enough.
Where has this woman been hiding.. and why?
Vote:December 12th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
“When they succeed they are at the top of the pile, they have power, prestige, privileges, and are in the spotlight. Then suddenly, literally overnight, they drop to the bottom. It must be a huge adjustment to make, individually and collectively.”
That’s why we need to have more winners in the political arena rather than small-time community leaders who “want to make a difference” and so join their local branch and make it to national politics by being complete sychophants.
Parliament needs to be comprised of high-calibre people in both opposition and govt ranks: real winners from the professions, from business, from diplomacy. Instead we always get a mixed bunch. Some could make it anywhere: people like Lange, Muldoon, Clark, Key.
Others couldn’t even make it to branch bank manager were it not for their sychophancy.
This is cross-generational and if politics matters, we’re only ever going to get high-quality leadership when we lift the salaries and eliminate the dross.
Emphasis upon eliminating the dross and that applies across the spectrum.
Vote:December 12th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
I think Labour could fall a long way yet before they turn things around.
Vote:December 12th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Trev is trying to stir up that John Key was having a coffee down the road istead of being in the house answering his 3 allocated questions, 1 of which even he described as silly .. no mention of Mr Goff being absent.
Vote:When I see Andrew 2 jobs Little (I know David respects him etc) with (usually just behind) Mr Goof, I hear in my minds ear the music from jaws .. do do, do do dodododododododo chomp. I don’t when 2 jobs with chomp but he must be worried Mr Good is failing so quickly. 2 jobs hasn’t had time to get his plan in place yet,
December 12th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
I wonder at what stage the pinko’s will admit that Clark did as much damage to the labour party and left wing politics as Muldoon did for the Nat’s.
The level of distrust and downright hatred many of the public have for Labour can only be blamed on her, as usual she in her selfish narcissistic way has insulated herself from most of this by using our tax payer dollars to purchase a job with the UN.
For those of us on the right who yearn for a real National government the demise of Labour is not a good thing at all, we need a strong and effective opposition, we need a party that will drive the Nat’s and their gutless socialist leader back to the right.
Clark has so destroyed the Labour brand that it will not recover until there has been an almost total clear out of what the public perceive to be the last of Clark’s people.
While it may seem strange to some on the right the truth is that our nation will continue down the path of wreck and ruin just as long as we have such a piss poor opposition, Labour needs to find a way to get Andrew Little into the house as soon as possible and manufacture a way of getting rid of Goff, Dyson, Cunliffe, Mallard, King and co completely.
Vote:December 12th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
I don’t think Little is the answer, it would take too long for him to get up to speed even for 2014. Actually I have my doubts about him at all. I think it has to be a current MP yet to rise through the ranks with a fairly ruthless broom.
Vote:December 12th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Being an MP is like no other job in the Universe. Parliamentary history is littered with people who looked on paper like they would be fabulous MPs, destined for leadership etc, but who have flopped. (There are also a few who have come in with low expectations and done really well). Whatever his achievements outside, Little needs to prove himself in Parliament before people talk about him as a potential leader.
Vote:December 12th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Pete G (and SR) .. I don’t thing 2 jobs is the answer either but HE does and it seems that the Labour MPs are shit scared of him .. can’t wait to see what happens.
Vote:December 12th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
I agree with Big Bruv (above, only).
Vote:December 13th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
“I think education could be a real battleground issues next election, and that parents will overwhelmingly be on the side of the party wanting them to know how their kids are doing.”
No. Parents will be on the side that doesnt send their tax money to private schools, doesnt cut good community education, doesnt cut proffesional development for teachers in key areas and doesnt close schools. National has been disgraceful on Education policy, but who’s surprised? Its just history repeating itself.
Vote:December 14th, 2009 at 10:23 am
I was at that Select Committee meeting – Cunliffe looked an absolute fool by the time Bill English was done with him. TV1 and TV3 cameras were there, hopefully the video exists somewhere. I would completely concur with Armstrong’s description of his attempt at embarassing Bill English. I could only feel empathy for the embarrasment of other Labour members on the committee as his enraged attacks were shot down again and again with simple facts delivered calmly by the Finance Minister.
Vote: