David Shearer to quit
Senior Labour MP’s selection for role in South Sudan hailed as ‘a huge deal’
It is a big feather in his cap. This is the toughest peacekeeping assignment on the planet. It is a difficult and dangerous place. Murray McCully, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Labour MP David Shearer is poised to resign from Parliament to take up the tough job of leading the United Nations’ mission in war-torn South Sudan.
The latest political bombshell will mean a byelection in his Mt Albert electorate early next year, the first electoral challenge for the new Prime Minister.
A recommendation for his appointment has been put before the UN Security Council in New York by outgoing UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki Moon.
Once approved this week, Shearer will work alongside the commander of 18,000 peacekeepers, with a budget of about $1 billion.
Any of the Security Council’s 15 members has two days to object, but given Shearer’s previous experience as a senior UN leader in troublespots, he is likely to be accepted.
The appointment is a personal one by the UN Secretary-General. It is not one that required a nomination by the Government.
But Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said Shearer, who is Labour’s foreign affairs spokesman, had the strong support of the Gov- ernment. “It is a huge deal,” he said. “[Security Council members have] a couple of days to raise any concerns, so it is not a done deal yet. “But it is a big feather in his cap. “This is the toughest peacekeeping assignment on the planet. It is a difficult and dangerous place.” The three-year civil war in South Sudan has forced more than two million people to flee their homes. The UN human rights commission last week said ethnic cleansing was taking place and the stage was being set for a repeat of what happened in Rwanda in 1994, when 800,000 mainly Tutsis were killed in the space of three months.
Shearer, a former New Zealand Herald New Zealander of the Year because of his aid work, has previously worked for the UN in conflict zones including Rwanda, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Lebanon and Liberia.
Shearer was elected to Parliament in a byelection in 2009, replacing former Prime Minister Helen Clark, who is head of the United Nations Development Programme.
He became Labour Party leader in 2011, after Phil Goff’s election defeat, but resigned before a scheduled noconfidence motion by the caucus and was replaced by David Cunliffe.
There was concern at polling under Shearer, which was about mid 30s, but it has never bettered that since and is now in the late 20s.
A byelection in Mt Albert will be the second for Labour to defend, following last weekend’s success in keeping Mt Roskill. Shearer won Mt Albert in 2014 with a 10,656 majority.
But like Mt Roskill, National polled higher than Labour in the party vote, 3536 votes higher.
Following John Key’s resignation on Monday, the new Prime Minister will be elected next Monday by the National Party caucus, with Deputy Prime Minister Bill English the frontrunner.
Byelections generally cost about $1 million, according to the Electoral Commission.
In the past two years there have been two byelections, one in Northland when Mike Sabin resigned as National MP and in Mt Roskill when Phil Goff resigned after being elected mayor of Auckland.