Barnett appointed Labour general secretary

Stuff reports:

 The Labour Party has appointed former Christchurch Central MP Tim Barnett as its new general secretary. …

Labour president Moira Coatsworth said Flatt had been a very strong leader during challenging times, and left the party in a stronger financial position and in good health.

“Tim comes to this role with considerable experience as a political representative and manager of organisations, at a fascinating and exciting time in our history. He will be driving implementation of our Organisational Review, forging a campaign-ready Labour machine nationwide and spearheading our fundraising. All key tasks towards achieving Labour-led government from 2014,” she said.

This is a smart appointment by Labour. Tim is a very experienced political campaigner, and I suspect will do a good job at focusing the Labour organisation on campaigning.

I worked with him a bit on the civil unions and prostitution law reform bills, and he was a very effective campaigner. He had all 120 MPs categorised by how they might vote, and notes on who is best to approach each of them, and the arguments to use. He successfully got both law changes through, when other MPs might have failed.

It was a real mystery why Helen Clark never made him a Minister – he was obviously more capable than many who were.