Curran selected in Dunedin South

I was pleased and proud but also a bit sad to see Clare Curran selected as the Labour Party candidate for Dunedin South yesterday.

Clare will be a major addition to the Labour Caucus for a number of reasons. She's good at communications, one area where some improvements are needed. She is part of a number of candidates who are part of a renewal of Labour's organising and campaigning tactics, which is going to be important in this year's tight election campaign. She has a different style of politics compared with the current MP there, which will also see her do things differently and in my subjective view, better.

The bit sad bit is about Benson-Pope. I think David's record has been a pretty strong one, and if one sets aside the mistakes he has made over the years - and the malicious and devastating attacks he has been subject to by the media - then he would probably still be the Labour candidate and still in Cabinet. The fact that he is neither shows how serious his mistakes were. There is a basic level of accountability in politics - you are selected as the best nominee possible for the constituency you stand for. He has failed to meet that test on this occasion. His achievements (and they are considerable, in a range of responsibilities in the past nine years) deserve praise, but his mistakes have been the main part of what led to yesterday's result.

As a nominee myself (not a candidate, not yet anyway, despite what was in Saturday's Herald), that possibility of rough justice is always in one's mind. Our selections are a democratic blending of local and national points of views and politics that selects a candidate. It is a process which can be bloody harsh and can seem terribly unfair to people in it. But it is a system that is democratic and whose results are, most often, the right ones.

To both of them, the current and the future MP, I wish the very best of luck for their futures. Each has a hard job to do, both in the next few months until the election and then after it. 

Comments

[JH]

The fact that the NZ Herald stated that you are already a Labour candidate for Hunua shows that they have once again searched Kiwiblog (http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2008_election_candidates) for their stories instead of leaving that website, hitting the streets and doing some proper journalism.

[Graeme]

JH - I suspect the Kiwiblog listing of Jordan as a candidate followed the Herald article, rather than preceded it.

[Murray]

Accountabilty from a Labour MP - surely you jest