I've been mulling on the blog already on the scale of the task Labour faces in returning to government.
An important part of that is actually building a solid policy agenda.
While our agenda coming into this year's election was comprehensive, it didn't get everything right, and it was not well communicated -- many people simply didn't know what our policy was in some key areas, something that we have to take primary responsibility for.
I don't know how David Shearer will operate the caucus, whether there will be a tight five approach, a functioning Shadow Cabinet, teams based around main portfolios, or opposition-by- caucus, and in a sense it doesn't worry me too much which way he chooses to go.
If we take "clean, green and clever" as a nice abbreviation for the thrust of the agenda that Shearer wants to build, then there is a brilliant team at the top.
His own interest in the research and science area; Grant's skills in policymaking and control of Environment and Tertiary Ed and Skills; Parker's interest in economic development as a key component of finance; Ardern's likely focus on getting people into work as part of Social Development; and Cunliffe's thinking on how to actually change the business environment to try and stimulate growth...... they all add up to a nice package of skills, interests and abilities.
That bodes well for an actual focus on something (anything!!), as opposed to our last three years of wandering from headline to headline. It's one of quite a lot of reasons I like what Shearer's putting into place for Labour.
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