Posted by Blogger Name. Category:
2014 General Election
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Fairfax-Ipsos poll
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Internal division
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John Tamihere
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Moira Coatsworth
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New Zealand Labour Party
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Shane Taurima
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Tamaki Makaurau
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Trouble at t'mill
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Will Flavell
As if the Labour Party didn't already have enough internal problems, there's a massive shit-fight brewing in Tamaki Makaurau. Radio New Zealand reports:
A former Labour MP for Tamaki Makaurau has accused the Labour Party president of abusing her power over the Shane Taurima case. It follows a request from the Tamaki Makaurau electorate committee for a review of the Labour national council decision not to let Mr Taurima stand.
John Tamihere told Morning Report that independent sources have confirmed party president Moira Coatsworth met with another broadcaster, Julian Wilcox.
"It's OK for a president to shoulder tap a high profile candidate or nominee like a Wilcox, but where it goes a bit awry is when you use your authority and power to then skew the scrum completely by taking out a major adversary on the pretext of an error of judgement in his employment" he said.
Mr Tamihere went on to say he believed Mr Taurima had good grounds for a judicial review of the Labour Council decision.
We can just imagine how that's going to go down; a Labour Party electorate committee dragging the party and its president to court just months before the General Election. That's really going to reinforce the notion that Labour is ready to govern; not! The party is at war with itself at the moment.
The RNZ story continues, outlining some pretty deep discontent within the Tamaki Makaurau LEC:
In a statement, the electorate committee said it was disappointed with the decision, and wanted Labour's council to review it. It said it continued to support Mr Taurima as a candidate and would be seeking further advice.
The decision was made after Mr Taurima was found to have used Television New Zealand resources for Labour Party campaigning.
A senior member on the electorate committee Shane Te Pou said there was a lot of hurt stemming from the decision to veto Mr Taurima's candidacy.
He told Morning Report there there was lot of ill feeling on the electorate committee and a lot of patch-up work needed to be done. Mr Te Pou said it was time to move on and it was highly likely nominations for the seat would reopen.
We don't know whether Shane Taurima would have a case for judicial review, given the decision of the Labour Party council. We do know however that Will Flavell, the only nomination to date will have every reason to feel hard done by if nominations are reopened again, and he faces competition for the role of Labour's Tamaki Makaurau candidate.
The Labour Party is a far from happy place at the moment, and this morning's Fairfax-Ipsos poll will have done nothing to lift spirits. There's all sorts of trouble at t'mill.
