0 UPDATED: Tweet of the Day - 4 July 2014

We've just spotted this from 3News senior reporter Amanda Gillies:

Whatever is David Cunliffe thinking these days? Yes; some men behave appallingly towards women. But the majority do not, and have little to apologise for.

What David Cunliffe SHOULD be apologising for however is being the leader of a political party that thinks so poorly of the ability of women to progress on their merits that the party has to create a quota system. That is truly demeaning and patronising towards women.

Save your political platitudes Mr Cunliffe. We're perfectly capable and willing to apologise where necessary, and we don't need you apologising on our behalf. 

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UPDATE: Retiring National MP Chris Tremain puts it far better than we could:

We couldn't agree more.

0 UPDATED - The Labour list

UPDATED: The Herald reports:

No newcomers are likely to make it into Parliament on Labour's new list unless the party polls almost 32 per cent in September.
After delaying the announcement due to the ongoing controversy around donations from Donghua Liu, Labour released the list this afternoon.
The list has ensured that - assuming sitting electorate MPs ranked above them retain their seats - four of the first six MPs likely to get in on the list are women, which will meet the new requirement to have a caucus with at least 45 per cent women after the 2014 election.
They are Jacinda Ardern who is at no.5, Sue Moroney at no. 10, Maryan Street at no. 15, and Moana Mackey who is at no. 17.
However the first newcomer on the list Ministry of Women's Affairs policy analyst Priyanka Radhakrishnan at 23 won't come in unless the party polls 31.67 per cent or more.

The outlook is rather stormy for former TVNZ weatherman Tamati Coffey. He would probably need Labour to get around 34% of the party vote if he cannot win the Rotorua seat.

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The Labour Party has finally released its list after several false starts over the last two days; Stuff reports:

Policy analyst Priyanca Radhakrishnan, small business owner Rachel Jones from Tauranga and former TVNZ presenter Tamati Coffey are the top ranked non-MPs in Labour's list released today.
Five sitting MPs Ruth Dyson, Kris Faafoi, Clare Curran, Trevor Mallard and Rino Tirikatene have opted off the list as has Napier candidate Stuart Nash.
Radhakrishnan, is ranked 23, Jones 25 and Coffey, who is standing in Rotorua, is at 30.
As expected leader David Cunliffe and his deputy take out the top two slots, followed by Grant Robertson, Annette King, Jacinda Ardern and Nanaia Mahuta, who is the top-ranked Maori MP.
Maungakiekie candidate Carol Beaumont has slipped from 22 to 26.
Party president Moira Coatsworth said the list was ''an outstanding group of talented New Zealanders".
"The party's renewal and the number of skilled candidates meant that the biggest challenge was having to rank 64 people of such high calibre. We are excited by the skilled, experienced people we expect to join our Caucus team."
Cunliffe said he was delighted at the ''fantastic array of talented candidates''.
The list is made up of 30 men and 34 women.   A further 16 men and five women are standing only for electorates.
LABOUR LIST
1    David Cunliffe
2    David Parker
3    Grant Robertson
4    Annette King
5    Jacinda Ardern
6    Nanaia Mahuta
7    Phil Twyford
8    Clayton Cosgrove
9    Chris Hipkins
10    Sue Moroney
11    Andrew Little
12    Louisa Wall
13    David Shearer
14    Su'a William Sio
15    Maryan Street
16    Phil Goff
17    Moana Mackey
18    Kelvin Davis
19    Meka Whaitiri
20    Megan Woods
21    Raymond Huo
22    Damien O'Connor
23    Priyanca Radhakrishnan
24    Iain Lees-Galloway
25    Rachel Jones
26    David Clark
27    Carol Beaumont
28    Poto Williams
29    Carmel Sepuloni
30    Tamati Coffey
31    Jenny Salesa
32    Liz Craig
33    Deborah Russell
34    Willow-Jean Prime
35    Jerome Mika
36    Tony Milne
37    Virginia Andersen
38    Claire Szabo
39    Michael Wood
40    Arena Williams
41    Hamish McDouall
42    Anjum Rahman
43    Sunny Kaushal
44    Christine Greer
45    Penny Gaylor
46    Janette Walker
47    Richard Hills
48    Shanan Halbert
49    Anahila Suisuiki
50    Clare Wilson
51    James Dann
52    Kelly Ellis
53    Corie Haddock
54    Jamie Strange
55    Katie Paul
56    Steven Gibson
57    Chao-Fu Wu
58    Paul Grimshaw
59    Tracey Dorreen
60    Tofik Mamedov
61    Hikiera Toroa
62    Hugh Tyler
63    Susan Elliot
64    Simon Buckingham 

There are plenty of interesting features. Trevor Mallard and Clare Curran have gone electorate only, along with Ruth Dyson, Kris Faafoi and Rino Tirakatene. 

Although Trevor Mallard won Hutt South by 4825 votes last time around, that was against Paul Quinn. But Mallard will be worried that the party vote in Hutt South favoured National by nearly 2000 votes in 2011. He cannot take his electorate seat for granted, and newcomer Chris Bishop is, from all reports, going to mount a very strong challenge.

Likewise Clare Curran. She won her seat by over 4000 votes in 2011, but the the first time since MMP began, Labour lost the party vote in Dunedin South by almost 2000 votes.  She will have to campaign very hard against Dunedin born-and-educated Hamish Walker.

Interestingly though, a total of 21 electorate candidates are not ranked on the Labour list (16 men and 5 women). Given that some of them are likely to win their electorate seats, Labour's percentage of the party vote probably needs to get up around the 33% mark for the likes of Kelvin Davis, Moana Mackey, Raymond Huo and Carol Beaumont to get back, if they do not win their respective seats. And because of the Man-Ban, Damian O'Connor (#22) and Iain Lees-Galloway (24) will almost certainly have to win their seats to keep their jobs.

And of course, it'll get even tougher for Labour's men in 2017 when women MUST comprise 50% of caucus. We won't resile from our contention that ability is more important than gender. Labour's Man-Ban is going to haunt the party in the years ahead. 

0 Hope the cleaners are well paid

Whoever cleans up after Labour's list ranking meeting this weekend had better be very well paid. There's likely to be blood on the floor in what is shaping up as an acrimonious session; the Herald reports:

The Labour Party will set its party list on Sunday and most of the prime real estate on it is expected to go to women candidates as the party wrestles with its new requirement to have a caucus with at least 45 per cent women after the 2014 election.
All of the top 20 MPs in caucus have also been told to go on the list in a bid to stop any perception the male MPs are boycotting it because of that rule, which makes it harder for males to get good list slots.
The party's low polling makes the news worse for male candidates relying on the list. It is expecting to win at least 28 electorates, 5 more than at present. That will give it two more female electorate MPs than present - Carmel Sepuloni and Jenny Salesa are in safe seats.
However, if Labour gets 30 per cent at the election that leaves only 8 places for List MPs - and 6 of those would have to go to women if it is to meet the 45 per cent.

That would not be enough to get all of the current List MPs back. It could put the likes of Clayton Cosgrove, Andrew Little and Kelvin Davis at risk of missing out if more women are ranked above them to ensure the 45 per cent target was safely passed.

The Labour Party's Man-Ban is about to come back and bite MP's on the bum. When senior MP's such as Andrew Little and Clayton Cosgrove are in danger of missing out (and David Parker's name was also mentioned this week, when Labour polled 23%), things are pretty grim.

Quota systems simply don't work. As honourable as Labour MP's trying to honour the party's commitment to gender equity may feel, very competent male MP's are going to have to make way for less qualified females, simply to make up the numbers.

We don't say that to demean Labour's female candidates. But a party which has been to the forefront of bringing women forward in politics ought not to have to resort to a quota system. It is the quota imposed by the Man-Ban policy that is demeaning to women. The sole qualification for an MP should be ability, not genitalia.

And as the polls continue their descent, and male MP's such Messrs Parker, Cosgrove, Little and Davis scramble for winnable list places, this weekend's ranking meeting will be brutal. We guess that's only to be expected when someone is about to be dudded out of a job and a $150,000 salary simply because they had the misfortune to be born the wrong gender.

The Man-Ban always was a daft idea. When Labour's Party List is released some time tomorrow, and when the casualties have been either bandaged up or transported to hospital we're going to see just how daft the Man-Ban is now. And we'll get an idea of how much worse it will be in 2017 when Labour's rules will require a 50/50 split.