The fight for Manurewa

Audrey Young writes:

On the afternoon of Saturday, April 8, I received a private call from a senior Labour Party figure about an article that had run in that day’s Herald on Louisa Wall’s effective deselection as Manurewa MP. …

The person on the other end of the phone that day asked if I knew that the real reason Wall had withdrawn was that she had lost the support of the Labour electorate committee (LEC). That’s the local executive in each electorate that runs party business.

The suggestion was news to me but it was a line to be repeated publicly in the following days by at least two Labour-aligned commentators, Neale Jones and Mike Williams.

I wonder who the person was? A senior figure could only be the President, General Secretary or one of the top four MPs, I’d say.

It can safely be said that the phone call was wrong. Louisa Wall did not lose the support of her LEC. She not only had the support of her LEC, she had the endorsement of E Tu union, the support of Te Kaunihera Māori (the Māori council of the party), and Labour’s Māori caucus with the exception of deputy leader Kelvin Davis.

So it was a smear sanctioned by Labour and repeated by their proxies.

The upshot was that instead of a candidate selection panel which could have comprised four local votes (two LEC, one floor rep and one ballot vote from qualified party members present) and just three New Zealand Council reps, there were only two local votes which were outnumbered by three New Zealand Council reps.

So Wall knew she would lose, because Head Office votes as Grant tells them to, and they could outvote the locals.

Williams had got to know Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern when Ardern had been a list MP based in Auckland Central and Williams had been president of the Auckland University Students Association. Williams was even closer to Grant Robertson, who was a mentor. 

Never bet against Grant in a game of internal politics.

Louisa Wall complained that Arena Williams’ nomination had arrived after the 5pm deadline on February 7. It was hand-delivered to Claire Szabo’s Auckland home after 5pm, after Williams had contacted head office saying she was not going to be able to meet the deadline (the reason is not known).

If that happened in National, the nomination would be invalid. You can’t ignore the rules just because the Deputy PM supports a candidate.