"Jim was the man..."
15/09/09 18:07
A gracious comment from Labour MP Clayton Cosgrove on the Labour MPs’ collective blog, about the opening of Sydenham police station.
“I was absolutely gobsmacked on Friday when [the Police Minister] opened the new Christchurch South police station, and failed to mention the immense debt this new building owes to the advocacy of Progressive MP Jim Anderton over a decade and a half. Instead, Collins trumpeted the new building as proof of National’s commitment to police and policing. National had nothing to do with this new station except as de facto purchasers of the ribbon Judith Collins cut.”
Here’s Jim’s statement on opening day.
“I was absolutely gobsmacked on Friday when [the Police Minister] opened the new Christchurch South police station, and failed to mention the immense debt this new building owes to the advocacy of Progressive MP Jim Anderton over a decade and a half. Instead, Collins trumpeted the new building as proof of National’s commitment to police and policing. National had nothing to do with this new station except as de facto purchasers of the ribbon Judith Collins cut.”
Here’s Jim’s statement on opening day.
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Jim Anderton’s speech to the Labour Party Conference
11/09/09 19:30 Filed in: Speeches
Jim Anderton’s speech to the Labour Party Conference
7.30pm Friday 11th September 2009
ENERGY EVENTS CENTRE, GOVERNMENT GARDENS, ROTORUA
I would like to thank Phil Goff for his invitation to be here, for his warm introduction and for your kind welcome.
It’s been 21 years since I last spoke at a Labour Party conference. …Did anything happen while I was away?
In July, I wrote to the New Zealand Council of the Labour Party on behalf of the Progressive Party. I said the time had come to clear the way for our members to work together, in recognition of our common values; In recognition of the years we spent in government together; and in recognition that cooperation between us is in the best interests of the people we represent.
I’m pleased that the New Zealand Council responded with goodwill.
As a result, members of the Progressives can now also belong to the Labour Party – in other words, dual membership.
Anyone with a sense of our history will be moved by the determination and purpose with which we are pushing ahead.
We share a vision of New Zealand:
A fairer New Zealand.
A stronger New Zealand.
A New Zealand in which we work together for the benefit of all new Zealanders.
For jobs.
For better health care, better education.
And above all for the future; For a better future for New Zealanders young and old.
The Progressive party was formed by people determined to work with Labour in government.
Ten years ago I set out with Helen Clark to form a new government. We were faced with an urgent challenge:
Turning around New Zealand so that we were going in the right direction.
Creating jobs and strengthening regions.
Restoring public services.
And we did it:
We achieved the lowest level of unemployment in New Zealand’s modern history.
Gains for working New Zealanders, like paid parental leave and four weeks paid annual leave.
Fair collective bargaining and fair workplace laws.
This is what we can achieve by working together.
We lifted more children out of poverty than at any time since the Great Depression.
We restored income related rents for state houses. We brought down the cost of seeing a doctor and getting medicine.
This is what we achieved by working together.
We brought Air NZ back into public ownership.
We brought Kiwi Rail back into public ownership.
And we opened our own Kiwibank.
This is the kind of progress we will continue to make by working together.
They are gains I am proud of. And I particularly remember our coalition government’s decision to refuse to send troops to Iraq as a part of the unilateral action led by the USA and the UK.
It was the right decision and I can tell you that no-one was more supportive of that decision than Phil Goff as Minister of Foreign Affairs and that is just one of the reasons I strongly support his leadership of the New Zealand Labour Party.
But then last year New Zealanders looked at our government, and chose not to keep us there. There were many reasons contributing to our loss. But I am certain of the things they did not reject. I am certain they did not reject our values.
They rejected us because they believed we had moved onto other priorities.
They tired of controversies, mini-scandals and mistakes we should not have made.
Not because they rejected low unemployment; not because they no longer wanted government to deliver for ordinary families; not because they wanted a return to asset sales and cuts in public services.
They thought we were sidetracked from these priorities.
And they believed our opponents’ promises. Remember those?
National said they would put more money in your pocket. They called Michael Cullen “Scrooge” and blamed him for not spending surpluses. National said you didn’t have more money in your pocket because the Labour-Progressive government wouldn’t spend the surpluses.
They don’t mention that much now.
They got elected without a strategic plan to deal with the problems New Zealand faces.
And so the usual suspects are already gathering to demand a return to the failed policies of the past.
We’re already hearing the vultures who say, ‘all we need to do is sell our assets.’ But they are wrong. People are over it. Anyone who says our economic problems would be solved by selling Meridian energy or the Ports of Auckland is looking in the wrong place for the wrong solutions
The days are over when it could be credibly argued that radical restructuring would deliver jobs and raise incomes while herds of unicorns would guide us down golden pathways to the future.
When I was a young political organiser, I was stirred to action in part by the call to public service of President Kennedy, immortalised in the memorable line, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
Hope. Service. And common purpose in pursuit of a common good. These are our values.
If we want to do better, and provide a better future for our children and grandchildren than the legacy we have inherited from the 80s and 90s, then we need to rediscover our common purpose.
Politics is not about point-scoring, or who is up and who is down. It’s not about Phil Goff, John Key, or Jim Anderton. It is about people, and ideas and leadership dedicated to realising a better future. And when we remember that, we will win.
Because our ideas are better. Because our side of politics is never content with the way things are. Because we want the mother with four kids who comes into my office with a $400 power bill to have a warm home, a good income and an opportunity for her kids to get well paid, skilled jobs when they leave school.
Because we want the young family that comes to see me with unaffordable dental bills to have access to life long, high quality, affordable dental health care.
Because we want superannuitants who come to see me with soaring rents for their home to be able to enjoy their retirement in affordable, housing.
Because we want the business that is taking on staff and growing to have access to the science and global networks that will help to create jobs and generate income in and for New Zealand.
President Obama said last year, “we are at our best when we lead with principle; when we lead with conviction; when we summon an entire nation around a common purpose – a higher purpose.”
He swept away cynicism with a vision of higher purpose and common effort in pursuit of a better country. And this should be our guide.
We have to be the voice of and for people who want to do better. We have to be the movement that says we get ahead by working hard and putting something back.
If we want kids to have a future, we must put something back.
If we want our elderly to enjoy a secure retirement, we must put something back. If we want our streets free from crime, we must put something back into the community so it offers potential criminals a stake, and a place to which they belong.
It is not acceptable that many elderly New Zealanders as well as low income families can not afford to heat their homes in winter. Nor is it acceptable that less than 66 per cent of all New Zealanders can afford to own their own home and that percentage is falling rapidly, while many of those who don’t, will never be able to do so.
And I still find the fact that the mental health system is the Cinderella of the physical health system something to be ashamed of as a New Zealander while more of us commit suicide than the numbers killed on our roads each year.
We need to do better at making our side of politics a thriving part of the regions of New Zealand. The Labour-progressive government did more for regional New Zealand than any government in recent memory – and, it has to be said, for less political reward.
But we need to listen to the regions – and even more we need to be part of those local communities. We need to be fearsomely well organised in regional New Zealand.
When I first joined the Labour Party in the nineteen sixties, its organisation was appalling.
Branches couldn’t talk to each other except by going through head office, for permission to do so. Our electorate organization, branch membership and election systems were so bad they were an embarrassment.
So much so that between 1949 and 1984, a period of 35 years, National was in government for 29 and Labour for just 6 years. In 1981 and 1984 we rolled right over the top of National’s much vaunted election machine.
If you have poor organisation it’s very hard to win elections. If you have great organisation, it’s funny how you start winning. It can seem lonely out there when there aren’t many members.
But even last year, as Labour lost both urban and non-urban based seats all over New Zealand, there were still hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders who didn’t vote for this government.
They are the potential membership base from which Labour must build outwards. Not holding a seat today is not an obstacle to winning it next time. But not having a strong, local, regional and national organisation, is.
You won’t win without strong organization. It’s not enough on its own but it is a necessary ingredient.
Block systems in every winnable seat.
Door knocking in every winnable seat.
Hoardings in greater numbers than our opponents.
More energy, more visibility, more connections.
More members – In 1981 – 1984 Labour had over 100,000 registered members and supporters. This gave us not only an army for our election machine but enthusiasm, high morale and momentum which in the end overwhelmed our political opponents.
Can we do it again? As President Obama said often – “Yes, we can!”
Without organization and membership, you won’t raise the money that it will take to change the government.
When I produced a booklet recommending democratic institutional change in the 1960’s, head office banned and recalled it for a book burning – it’s true!
But I’ve learnt since then a thing or two about electorate organisation. Your National opponents have 9 seats with a majority of less than 2000 votes where a two-party swing of less than 3% to Labour would win all of them.
If you include Wigram on your side you only need one more seat to hold more electorate seats than National. What I am saying to you is that you can win the next election.
To win the party vote you need a two party swing of 5.84% which would give you an additional 277,573 party votes. This is a hard call but averaged out per electorate it means 3965 extra party votes in each.
Can you do it? Yes you can!
If you think you are in a tough situation try coming back from a coup against your leader in the middle of an election campaign!
We had an election system in Wigram that could tell us household by household how well we were doing.
My campaign organiser said to me before the election in 1990 as the NewLabour candidate for Sydenham that we would win by 4012 votes. No such victory had ever been achieved in the whole of New Zealand’s political history.
We won by 4009. Jeanette Lawrence was that organiser – and still is.
And in the first week after the election we were working on getting back the three votes we had failed to get. And nothing has changed in the organisation of my electorate over 25 years.
Winning elections comes from defining the positive difference we want to make for ordinary New Zealanders.
It comes from listening to New Zealanders, in regions and towns and from winning the trust and confidence of people we seek to represent. Winning comes from powerful, detailed organisation, at the level of every town and suburb, every street, every letterbox, every doorstep, every telephone, every mobile phone. It comes from Internet connections, and personal connections, and relentlessly returning to them again and again.
I pledge the Progressive Party to help in this endeavour.
We have already contributed a state of the art, modern election organization manual to almost all MPs and it is available to all candidates and campaign managers. Every one of the ideas it contains has been implemented in my electorate. I don’t expect this one to be burnt!
To achieve this result over the next two and a half years will require clear strategic goals, high quality campaign planning, tight discipline and superior organizational ability and capability. The gap cannot be closed in three to four months in election year. It is not rocket science. Everything in this election manual is already being done in several Labour electorates.
But the book is a compilation of the processes and techniques required to win in every electorate. This is a best practice guide to organizing in an electorate. It tells you what you can do, how to do it, and in what order.
In Wigram, we do everything in it. And we win!
The Progressive Party is contributing people to help.
A lot of our members went to Mt Albert this year to help Labour win that seat. And our members will be out on the streets again in 2011 helping to re-elect a Labour-led government.
It’s up to us all to inspire New Zealand with our common vision:
That everyone has a place.
That everyone has a chance to succeed.
That every single person has a unique contribution to make.
That when we choose to invest in our future, and in jobs, then New Zealand can again join the first rank of nations.
And then not just the chief executive but also the caretaker, the secretary and tradesmen and women will have a place in the winners’ circle.
That is the New Zealand we all know and love. That is the New Zealand we must commit ourselves to help re-build in just 2 years time.
7.30pm Friday 11th September 2009
ENERGY EVENTS CENTRE, GOVERNMENT GARDENS, ROTORUA
I would like to thank Phil Goff for his invitation to be here, for his warm introduction and for your kind welcome.
It’s been 21 years since I last spoke at a Labour Party conference. …Did anything happen while I was away?
In July, I wrote to the New Zealand Council of the Labour Party on behalf of the Progressive Party. I said the time had come to clear the way for our members to work together, in recognition of our common values; In recognition of the years we spent in government together; and in recognition that cooperation between us is in the best interests of the people we represent.
I’m pleased that the New Zealand Council responded with goodwill.
As a result, members of the Progressives can now also belong to the Labour Party – in other words, dual membership.
Anyone with a sense of our history will be moved by the determination and purpose with which we are pushing ahead.
We share a vision of New Zealand:
A fairer New Zealand.
A stronger New Zealand.
A New Zealand in which we work together for the benefit of all new Zealanders.
For jobs.
For better health care, better education.
And above all for the future; For a better future for New Zealanders young and old.
The Progressive party was formed by people determined to work with Labour in government.
Ten years ago I set out with Helen Clark to form a new government. We were faced with an urgent challenge:
Turning around New Zealand so that we were going in the right direction.
Creating jobs and strengthening regions.
Restoring public services.
And we did it:
We achieved the lowest level of unemployment in New Zealand’s modern history.
Gains for working New Zealanders, like paid parental leave and four weeks paid annual leave.
Fair collective bargaining and fair workplace laws.
This is what we can achieve by working together.
We lifted more children out of poverty than at any time since the Great Depression.
We restored income related rents for state houses. We brought down the cost of seeing a doctor and getting medicine.
This is what we achieved by working together.
We brought Air NZ back into public ownership.
We brought Kiwi Rail back into public ownership.
And we opened our own Kiwibank.
This is the kind of progress we will continue to make by working together.
They are gains I am proud of. And I particularly remember our coalition government’s decision to refuse to send troops to Iraq as a part of the unilateral action led by the USA and the UK.
It was the right decision and I can tell you that no-one was more supportive of that decision than Phil Goff as Minister of Foreign Affairs and that is just one of the reasons I strongly support his leadership of the New Zealand Labour Party.
But then last year New Zealanders looked at our government, and chose not to keep us there. There were many reasons contributing to our loss. But I am certain of the things they did not reject. I am certain they did not reject our values.
They rejected us because they believed we had moved onto other priorities.
They tired of controversies, mini-scandals and mistakes we should not have made.
Not because they rejected low unemployment; not because they no longer wanted government to deliver for ordinary families; not because they wanted a return to asset sales and cuts in public services.
They thought we were sidetracked from these priorities.
And they believed our opponents’ promises. Remember those?
National said they would put more money in your pocket. They called Michael Cullen “Scrooge” and blamed him for not spending surpluses. National said you didn’t have more money in your pocket because the Labour-Progressive government wouldn’t spend the surpluses.
They don’t mention that much now.
They got elected without a strategic plan to deal with the problems New Zealand faces.
And so the usual suspects are already gathering to demand a return to the failed policies of the past.
We’re already hearing the vultures who say, ‘all we need to do is sell our assets.’ But they are wrong. People are over it. Anyone who says our economic problems would be solved by selling Meridian energy or the Ports of Auckland is looking in the wrong place for the wrong solutions
The days are over when it could be credibly argued that radical restructuring would deliver jobs and raise incomes while herds of unicorns would guide us down golden pathways to the future.
When I was a young political organiser, I was stirred to action in part by the call to public service of President Kennedy, immortalised in the memorable line, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
Hope. Service. And common purpose in pursuit of a common good. These are our values.
If we want to do better, and provide a better future for our children and grandchildren than the legacy we have inherited from the 80s and 90s, then we need to rediscover our common purpose.
Politics is not about point-scoring, or who is up and who is down. It’s not about Phil Goff, John Key, or Jim Anderton. It is about people, and ideas and leadership dedicated to realising a better future. And when we remember that, we will win.
Because our ideas are better. Because our side of politics is never content with the way things are. Because we want the mother with four kids who comes into my office with a $400 power bill to have a warm home, a good income and an opportunity for her kids to get well paid, skilled jobs when they leave school.
Because we want the young family that comes to see me with unaffordable dental bills to have access to life long, high quality, affordable dental health care.
Because we want superannuitants who come to see me with soaring rents for their home to be able to enjoy their retirement in affordable, housing.
Because we want the business that is taking on staff and growing to have access to the science and global networks that will help to create jobs and generate income in and for New Zealand.
President Obama said last year, “we are at our best when we lead with principle; when we lead with conviction; when we summon an entire nation around a common purpose – a higher purpose.”
He swept away cynicism with a vision of higher purpose and common effort in pursuit of a better country. And this should be our guide.
We have to be the voice of and for people who want to do better. We have to be the movement that says we get ahead by working hard and putting something back.
If we want kids to have a future, we must put something back.
If we want our elderly to enjoy a secure retirement, we must put something back. If we want our streets free from crime, we must put something back into the community so it offers potential criminals a stake, and a place to which they belong.
It is not acceptable that many elderly New Zealanders as well as low income families can not afford to heat their homes in winter. Nor is it acceptable that less than 66 per cent of all New Zealanders can afford to own their own home and that percentage is falling rapidly, while many of those who don’t, will never be able to do so.
And I still find the fact that the mental health system is the Cinderella of the physical health system something to be ashamed of as a New Zealander while more of us commit suicide than the numbers killed on our roads each year.
We need to do better at making our side of politics a thriving part of the regions of New Zealand. The Labour-progressive government did more for regional New Zealand than any government in recent memory – and, it has to be said, for less political reward.
But we need to listen to the regions – and even more we need to be part of those local communities. We need to be fearsomely well organised in regional New Zealand.
When I first joined the Labour Party in the nineteen sixties, its organisation was appalling.
Branches couldn’t talk to each other except by going through head office, for permission to do so. Our electorate organization, branch membership and election systems were so bad they were an embarrassment.
So much so that between 1949 and 1984, a period of 35 years, National was in government for 29 and Labour for just 6 years. In 1981 and 1984 we rolled right over the top of National’s much vaunted election machine.
If you have poor organisation it’s very hard to win elections. If you have great organisation, it’s funny how you start winning. It can seem lonely out there when there aren’t many members.
But even last year, as Labour lost both urban and non-urban based seats all over New Zealand, there were still hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders who didn’t vote for this government.
They are the potential membership base from which Labour must build outwards. Not holding a seat today is not an obstacle to winning it next time. But not having a strong, local, regional and national organisation, is.
You won’t win without strong organization. It’s not enough on its own but it is a necessary ingredient.
Block systems in every winnable seat.
Door knocking in every winnable seat.
Hoardings in greater numbers than our opponents.
More energy, more visibility, more connections.
More members – In 1981 – 1984 Labour had over 100,000 registered members and supporters. This gave us not only an army for our election machine but enthusiasm, high morale and momentum which in the end overwhelmed our political opponents.
Can we do it again? As President Obama said often – “Yes, we can!”
Without organization and membership, you won’t raise the money that it will take to change the government.
When I produced a booklet recommending democratic institutional change in the 1960’s, head office banned and recalled it for a book burning – it’s true!
But I’ve learnt since then a thing or two about electorate organisation. Your National opponents have 9 seats with a majority of less than 2000 votes where a two-party swing of less than 3% to Labour would win all of them.
If you include Wigram on your side you only need one more seat to hold more electorate seats than National. What I am saying to you is that you can win the next election.
To win the party vote you need a two party swing of 5.84% which would give you an additional 277,573 party votes. This is a hard call but averaged out per electorate it means 3965 extra party votes in each.
Can you do it? Yes you can!
If you think you are in a tough situation try coming back from a coup against your leader in the middle of an election campaign!
We had an election system in Wigram that could tell us household by household how well we were doing.
My campaign organiser said to me before the election in 1990 as the NewLabour candidate for Sydenham that we would win by 4012 votes. No such victory had ever been achieved in the whole of New Zealand’s political history.
We won by 4009. Jeanette Lawrence was that organiser – and still is.
And in the first week after the election we were working on getting back the three votes we had failed to get. And nothing has changed in the organisation of my electorate over 25 years.
Winning elections comes from defining the positive difference we want to make for ordinary New Zealanders.
It comes from listening to New Zealanders, in regions and towns and from winning the trust and confidence of people we seek to represent. Winning comes from powerful, detailed organisation, at the level of every town and suburb, every street, every letterbox, every doorstep, every telephone, every mobile phone. It comes from Internet connections, and personal connections, and relentlessly returning to them again and again.
I pledge the Progressive Party to help in this endeavour.
We have already contributed a state of the art, modern election organization manual to almost all MPs and it is available to all candidates and campaign managers. Every one of the ideas it contains has been implemented in my electorate. I don’t expect this one to be burnt!
To achieve this result over the next two and a half years will require clear strategic goals, high quality campaign planning, tight discipline and superior organizational ability and capability. The gap cannot be closed in three to four months in election year. It is not rocket science. Everything in this election manual is already being done in several Labour electorates.
But the book is a compilation of the processes and techniques required to win in every electorate. This is a best practice guide to organizing in an electorate. It tells you what you can do, how to do it, and in what order.
In Wigram, we do everything in it. And we win!
The Progressive Party is contributing people to help.
A lot of our members went to Mt Albert this year to help Labour win that seat. And our members will be out on the streets again in 2011 helping to re-elect a Labour-led government.
It’s up to us all to inspire New Zealand with our common vision:
That everyone has a place.
That everyone has a chance to succeed.
That every single person has a unique contribution to make.
That when we choose to invest in our future, and in jobs, then New Zealand can again join the first rank of nations.
And then not just the chief executive but also the caretaker, the secretary and tradesmen and women will have a place in the winners’ circle.
That is the New Zealand we all know and love. That is the New Zealand we must commit ourselves to help re-build in just 2 years time.