Be even more scared

Remember those remits I posted yesterday, which are up for debate at the Labour Party conference this weekend. Well I made a mistake. I thought these were remits just put up by any old insane individual or small branch. But in fact these are primarily remits that have already been passed by a Labour Party Regional Conference, and in some cases are endorsed by the Party’s NZ Council.

In other words, these remits have widespread support in Labour! They are not just the odd lunatic individual. Can you imagine how bad the remits must have been that didn’t even make it this far?

Reading another document, I’ve discovered that the NZ Council has agreed to a 40% female quota for both candidates and office holders.

They go even further. A remit proposed a rule that no more than 60% of an LEC’s officers can be from a particular gender. The NZ Council has said the rule should be that at least 50% of LEC officers must be women. So it will be legal to have an LEC with 100% female officers but illegal to have one that is 60% male and 40% female!!

And even better Labour Auckland Central propose that if it is apparent the elections will not get at least 50% female officers, they must stop the elections and leave roles vacant. So if an electorate had no women standing for office, then they could elect no one at all!! Well done Auckland Central Labour.

Their gender quota obsession even extends to branches, saying that is a branch has more than one delegate to an LEC, at least 50% must be women. That means again there is no problem with 100% women delegates, but illegal to have five male delegates and three female delegates.

Unions are currently restricted to seven delegates on an LEC. Considering the size of an LEC is 14 to 30, this is a high proortion. But not high enough. The Dairy Workers Union is proposing that a union can get up to 14 delegates on an LEC – ie control.

One rare piece of good news. Their remit to make the policy platform binding on all Labour Party members in public office, is being changed so it is only binding on members who stand for Labour. This means Len Brown will not now face expulsion if he does something contrary to Labour policy.

In other fun news, Hutt South proposes male and female co-leaders and the NZ Council does not oppose this.