Who was the delegate?

We have heard a lot from Labour about how the suggestion to use taxpayer funded Government information pamphlets while out campaigning just came from a delegate at the conference, and Mike Williams just agreed with him that it was a damn good idea (before WIlliams then denied everything).

Now as someone who has attended a lot of party conferences, I can sympathise that sometimes you get very naive and inexperienced members at these conferences who say stupid things.

So when the proposal to use the taxpayer funded advertising for campaigning is dismissed as just being from a delegate, you do wonder what sort of delegate?

Was it someone just active at branch level? Was it someone active at electorate level? Or was it someone who held office at regional level? Or was it someone even more senior than that.

Well thanks to a Kiwiblog reader, we have an answer.  A female Mainlander e-mailed in to identify the voice as Martin Ward. Mr Ward is (or at least was until recently) a member of the Labour Party’s ruling NZ Council.  So this delegate the President was responding to, was one of his colleagues on the Party’s top board.

And according to reports Mr Ward suggested the use of both KiwiSaver and Working for Families brochures. WFF is one of the Government’s key welfare benefits (by way of family tax credits). And who is the Minister of Social Welfare, sorry Social Development and Employment. Well by coincidence Mr Ward’s wife – Ruth Dyson.

So this suggestion to use taxpayer funded material for campaigning did not come from some junior lackey. It came from a member of the Labour Party’s Council and the spouse of a senior Cabinet Minister.