Dom Post on Mt Albert

Today’s Dom Post editorial:

For once Labour has got its selection right. By standing a candidate who is not a list MP it has averted the nightmare scenario of perennial time-server Judith Tizard returning for another 2 1/2 years on the public teat as a list MP. And, if he is successful, David Shearer a highly regarded international aid specialist who resigned as United Nations deputy chief of mission in Iraq to contest the by-election will add greatly to Labour’s talent pool. In fact, he would be part of that pool already were it not for the determination of the union movement to use its muscle to turn the Labour side of Parliament into a rest home for tired union officials.

Ouch.

In 2002, Mr Shearer was edged out of what was then the safe Labour seat of Waitakere by Engineers Union organiser Lynne Pillay and bumped out of a winnable position on the party list by another Engineers Union organiser, Dave Hereora. Neither Ms Pillay, who remains in Parliament, nor Mr Hereora, who was ousted last year, have ever done anything that suggests they are an answer to any of Labour’s problems.

No wonder Phil Goff intervened in the selection, rather than leave it to Andrew Little.