Phil’s Propaganda Pagani

The Dom Post reports:

Labour leader Phil Goff’s defeated choice for party general secretary has been parachuted into a top job in his parliamentary office.

John Pagani, a long-time adviser to Progressive leader Jim Anderton, will start work as one of four “directors” in Labour’s leadership team next week.

Mr Goff said he would be focusing on non-media communications. “John has skills that will be very useful for Labour in opposition and I am looking forward to having him in the office as communications director.”

Heh I always use to refer to the communications job as Director of Propaganda. They would never let me get business cards that said it though.

I suspect John’s role will go beyond communications, and he will have considerable input into both strategy and tactics. I expect to see Goff start to take a few more risks – some of which may pay off.

He will work with chief press secretary Gordon Jon Thompson, policy director Marcus Ganley and office director Murray Wansbrough.

Seeing I have profiled Pagani a bit, I should cover the other senior staffers. Policy Director Marcus Ganley is a lifetime Labour supporter. In his own words:

I have been a Labour support my whole life. I remember feeling devastated as a 6 year old when Bill Rowling’s Labour lost the 1981 election.

I wonder if his fellow six year olds were equally emotional about the 1981 election results?

Ganley worked for Michael Cullen up until the election and then was employed by Chen Palmer in December 2008. Not sure when he moved to Goff’s office. He has a strong background in political science and law – which is pretty sensible for a policy role.

Murray Wansbrough in 2004 worked for Infrastructure maintenance company, Transfield Services. It looks like he was private secretary to Goff as a Minister. Interestingly he was a leading figure in, and a Director of, the controversial Mike Moore Supporters Club in the early 1990s.

Gordon Jon Thompson was previously one of Helen Clark’s press secretaries. He also worked for David Parker before that.

He is a former Waikato Times and Dominion Post reporter and is the brother of Fairfax group executive editor Paul Thompson.

There doesn’t appear to be a chief of staff. This may prove to be a mistake. Having worked in an Opposition Leader’s Office with, and without, a Chief of Staff, my experience is that things work much better if there is one.