NZ Politics Daily: 6 April (liberation)

The tide seems to be turning in the Labour Party’s very negative coverage in the media and blogosphere. The talk now is all about the advice that Labour needs in order to recover from the recent sagas. Unfortunately for Labour, a lot of the advice is along the lines of ‘get rid of Goff’. This is certainly the strong message today from one of the party’s major financial backers – see Bernard Hickey’s article, Labour-linked entrepreneur Selwyn Pellett calls on Phil Goff to step down to strengthen opposition to National. One of my Politics Honours students, James Meager, has put forward ‘5 steps to election success: Labour’ on his blog mydeology.co.nz and this contains some thoughtful ideas. Rob Carr has asked the question How Left Should Labour Be?, suggesting that Labour is too centrist for its own good. And on the Dim-Post, the idea is put forward that Labour should go harder on National’s management of the economy – see: Leadership vacuum watch.

The ideal opportunity for Labour to do this is in relation to National’s partial privatisation proposals – and there is a whole section on the privatisation proposals in today’s NZPD. Unfortunately nearly all of this material is from the right, and so far the left has little of analytical and significant substance to say about the issue (outside of the more political rhetoric and populist/nationalist variety), but the debate is far from over. However, John Minto’s Iwi Used To Defend Economic Privatisation is well worth a read. And for a different take on Labour’s situation, see Sean Plunket’s satirical attempt to point out the problems - Too many rules make Johnny a bully boy. [Continue reading below for a full list of the highlights of NZ Politics Daily]

Below are the internet links to all the NZ politics material from the last 24 hours that are either informative, insightful, interesting or influential. This list and the links are taken from a fuller document, NZ Politics Daily, which is emailed out, Monday to Friday, to various researchers, academics, journalists, MPs and so forth. The document is purely for research purposes only, and if you would like to be on the subscription list, please email: [email protected]

Labour Party

James Meager (mydeology): 5 steps to election success: Labour

The Dim Post: Leadership vacuum watch

Rob Carr (Political Dumpground): How Left Should Labour Be?

Bernard Hickey (interest.co.nz): Labour-linked entrepreneur Selwyn Pellett calls on Phil Goff to step down to strengthen opposition to National

Whaleoil: Even Selwyn Pellett wants Goff gone

Claire Trevett (NZH) Moroney gets education role

David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Labour’s minor reshuffle

Sean Plunket (Dom Post): Too many rules make Johnny a bully boy

Denis Welch (Opposable thumb): Way to go

Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): Political Report: April 6

TVNZ: Phil Goff Interview