Over at Kiwiblog, DPF reported yesterday that TVNZ's deputy political editor Fran Mold has resigned from TVNZ. Whilst we will shed no tears at her departure, it's her destination that raises questions.
Mold is reported to be being lined up to replace Kris Faafoi, another ex-TVNZ politicial "journalist" as Phil Goff's chief press secretary. Faafoi has recently confirmed that he will contest the Labour nomination in the safe Mana seat when Winnie Laban confirms her retirement.
This raises an interesting question; how democratic are Labour's candidate selection? Last year we saw David Shearer parachuted in from afar to win the nomination over a strong local field. Shearer of course is a close personal friend of Phil Goff. Now it would appear that Kris Faafoi has been annointed by the leader as the candidate of choice for Mana, hence the provisional appointment of a replacement presser.
That doesn't bode well for any long-serving member of the Labour Party with political ambitions, does it. Sheesh, until the last election, Kris Faafoi was a "neutral" political journalist (the inverted commas around "neutral" should give a clue to where we're coming from!); now he seems poised to win selection in one of Labour's few safe seats giving him a job for life, thanks to the ability of head office to dictate candidate selection. We reckon that local democracy is an alien concept to the Labour Party.
1 comments:
Labour Candidate selections are naturally skewed towards the Party heirachy. The Selection panel consists of three nominees from Headquarters, two from the local LEC, and one vote cast as the result of a straw poll amongst local members in attendance at the Selection meeting. In the event of a tied result, Headquarters has a casting vote.
The results are scarcely surprising.
David
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