Francesca Rudkin: What does Labour's list tell us?

The Labour Party yesterday announced its final candidate list ahead of the Election.    Did you find it an encouraging list? It looks like there are some very capable, accomplished newcomers with real life experience quite high on the list, and quite a few activists. While several more experienced, current MP’s find themselves down the list, most likely further than they’d like.    So, what does this tell us? Well, not much more than any other list.   Party President Jill Day said they were "proud" of the diversity and "depth of talent", and that, "we represent our whole community with the skills and life experiences we need to bring real progressive change".   But every party promotes their list this way. At the end of May, ACT released their first batch of candidates by saying, “ACT’s candidates are a true representation of modern New Zealand. They include farmers, legal experts, business owners, tradies, parents, military veterans, policy experts, teachers, engineers, and community leaders. They come from all walks of life, but they share one thing in common: a belief that New Zealand can and must do better." Hopefully the newbies do bring fresh ideas, and a get it done attitude - but we will have to wait and see. It’s not until we see candidates in action that we really get a sense of them.    The list was notable for a couple of things.    1. Greg O’Connor, the assistant speaker who said at the beginning of the year, “I don't think I'm ready to give up politics yet, I think I've got a lot to offer”, has not picked up a spot on the party list (or maybe one that he was happy with) after his seat was disestablished, so is stepping away.     2. The highly placed Superintendent Rakesh Naidoo, number 13 on the list, has annoyed his boss the Police Commissioner, who expressed severe displeasure over the process that led to a superintendent being on the Labour list. Current Police Minister Mark Mitchell isn’t terribly happy either. He said it is critical that the public can have confidence that police are politically neutral. So, not the smoothest announcement there.     3. But what really caught our attention was the accidental policy announcement about tax relief by another newcomer on the list, Kingi Kiriona. He got a little ahead of himself by saying he gathered there will be some tax relief policies to be announced – and then very quickly referred back to his leader. And, you know what, I felt for the guy. The first media stand up —as a candidate— is intimidating. So, it was a learning experience – he now knows why politicians try to stick to the message.    Obviously, there’s some media training to come, but in the meantime it was the most interesting thing to come out of yesterday’s announcement.    Maybe this was just a really good tease to get us excited that Labour is about to start releasing policy. In a couple of days, apparently.    It will be interesting to see if it has that ‘real progressive change’ they keep talking about.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.