That's the question that we must ask this morning in the wake of a damning 3News poll.
We pose this question after a startling result in the question posed by pollsters on who might replace Phil Goff as Labour Party leader. Two new players have entered the fray - Don't Know and Don't Care collectively aggregated almost a quarter of the vote!
Of the others, Annette King, David Cunliffe and Shane Jones figured prominently. We reckon that King is a non-starter. She's been in Parliament for 25 years now, and we must never forget that she was a Minister in the Lange/Palmer/Moore government, as, of course, was Phil Goff. She is hardly the "new face" of the Labour Party. And we reckon that Jones and Cunliffe carry too much baggage just at the moment to even be considered. Jones has the messy business of Bill Liu's court case hanging over him, as does Cunliffe, for different reasons. Both are heavily implicated, having made decisions regarding Liu AGAINST the advice of their respective officials. Then, of course, there's Baygate; Cunliffe and King both are tarred with that brush.
Interestingly, among the also-rans were two people not even in Parliament - Laila Harre, former Alliance MP before falling out with Jim the Progressive, and Andrew Little. The latter is probably a bit busy at the moment to take on Phil's job, given that each morning he has to work out which hat to put on - that of the EPMU or that of the Labour Party.
All this of course is academic. As the Listener revealed a couple of weeks ago, Goff's leadership until the 2011 is protected by a "pact" among senior MP's - unless, of course some renegade breaks ranks, and starts doing things without telling his leader - eh Trevor!
And even if such a wicked deed was to happen, the bottom line is this - would anyone actually notice?
1 comment:
The poll just reflects the difficulty a party faces in opposition after a long time in government. The public aren't interested and there isn't a lot the party can do about it.
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