The list is good for Cunliffe

Ben Thomas at NBR points something out about the Labour Party List:

Of those, five have worked directly as staffers for Prime Minister Helen Clark: Chris Hipkins (47), Grant Robertson (46) and Ms Ardern (20) are present or former advisors in the PM’s office; Brendon Burns (49) is the former head of the beehive’s communications unit established by Clark; Phil Twyford (26) worked in the Prime Minister’s electorate office in Mt Albert in 2005.

Now I don’t think working for a PM should rule you out of selection. In fact those candidates, if they become MPs, will be relatively experienced in parliamentary processes (although some of them somewhat lacking in life experience).

But the real significance, is what will happen if Labour loses. The leadership is likely to be a fight between Phil Goff and David Cunliffe. And five former Clark staffers will all vote with Helen to support Cunliffe over Goff. In no way does Clark want Goff as her sucessor.

So David Cunliffe should be very happy with the list, and Phil Goff less so.