Uneasy year, optimistic conference
Labour descended on Whanganui eager to prove it’s still a real party, not just the support machine for Jacinda Ardern,
Jacinda Ardern was down on the ground, straining to lift the Labour Party through a door. Like other parties, Labour has a few large, roll-up banners to put behind politicians when they are speaking to remind the viewer exactly which party they are watching on TV.
As anyone who has gone along with a politician door knocking knows, the colour of a party’s brand is sometimes all voters really remember, so it pays to connect politicians to their party’s brand.
These roll-up banners are particularly unwieldy, however, and journalists are very picky about how much noise they will tolerate behind a press conference, necessitating several rounds of packing up and picking up the banner. Hence the struggle getting the banner through the door.
Ardern soon saw the journalists watching and straightened herself out – she is the prime minister, after all, she just happens to be a very keen Labour member too.
Party conferences are famously hard to screw up, although Labour have certainly managed in the past. The party gets hundreds of eager party loyalists in the room, closes off all the interesting bits, and makes a few announcements to rapturous applause.
Whanganui won out over Rotorua for the hosting rights at the weekend. It used to be a safe Labour seat but has stayed blue since 2005. Whanganui Mayor Hamish McDouall, who opened the conference on Friday night, was confident that could change – making his case that Labour could still be a provincial party. (This pitch wasn’t helped by the fact someone in Labour managed to mix up Whangarei and Whanganui in an email.)
McDouall was followed on Friday by Ardern, who addressed what she knew would be the media narrative going in – whether Labour had sorted itself out following two separate serious sexual allegations made by members of the party in the past few years.
‘‘We are not a perfect organisation. This year we have all been on a journey, and we have learnt some incredibly important lessons,’’ Ardern said. ‘‘We may be a political organisation but that should not be the lens we use to treat our members. People first – politics second.’’
This sombre tone was only struck briefly, and basically every member Stuff talked to was relishing the sunny weekend in Whanganui, from the grizzled unionists to the fresh faces of Young Labour.
As much as the party currently projects youth – with its late-30s prime minister, youth-adjacent new president, and bright young things like Kiri Allan, Steph Lewis, and Kieran McAnulty, it also leans into its history.
The conference merchandise stall featured socks with Labour branding from the hated 1980s, as well as the Helen Clark years and the current logo. You could also purchase a mug, pick up a free (orange) tomato plant, buy a ticket for one of several raffles, or place a small red dot on the fulfilled Labour promise that meant the most to you.
This party history was helpful as Labour looks to prove that it isn’t just the Ardern show, and is a unique party, not just the centre of a government.
The delegates present were very much Labour people, not just Ardern fans, even if she was the only MP other than Grant Robertson with a photograph in the conference booklet – 13, in fact.
Robertson’s announcement on Saturday lacked any real detail. He simply said the Government would be borrowing more money to bring infrastructure projects forward, but wouldn’t say how much or for what projects. But this was actually a very serious step change ahead of the election.
Critics, including the Reserve Bank governor have been calling for this Government to borrow some money (which is basically free currently) and spend it on infrastructure, stimulating the economy. Robertson has worked for two years to build up an image as a man of austere fiscal prudence, but now appears to be letting that go a touch – just in time for the election, handily.
The first fruit of that step change was revealed to a standing ovation in the local opera house yesterday when Ardern announced the Government would spend $396m in the next two years on upgrading school property.
Ardern stood dwarfed by a gigantic screen listing various achievements or predicted achievements of the governments, the words, ‘‘We’re doing this’’ repeated three times. The energy was very campaign trail, which makes sense given the election is less than a year away.
There was, in fact, an election during the conference, one that exposed the only real rift in a party more enamoured with its leadership than it has been in decades. That election was for the Labour Party president, necessary after Nigel Haworth resigned over his handling of the sexual assault allegations. Claire Szabo – a white woman close to Ardern with experience running a large organisation – won the vote, as was expected.
The rift is with Labour’s Ma¯ ori wing, which has now delivered seven Ma¯ ori seats for the party but have just two MPs in Cabinet. Their candidate was Tane Phillips, a Kawerau unionist who is currently the vice-president for Ma¯ ori.
After Szabo won (to very loud applause) Te Kaunihera Ma¯ ori chair Rudy Taylor stood from the floor and looked to quell any tension – making clear that now the election was over and his candidate had lost he was behind Szabo and Ardern 100 per cent. In the hallways afterwards the phrase ‘‘indivisible Labour’’ bounced around plenty.
Whanganui local Karanga Morgan summed up what many Labour faithful repeated at the end of the weekend: It was an excellent conference. She was proud of the ‘‘strong Ma¯ ori caucus’’ and Ardern. ‘‘She brings integrity to politics and we haven’t had that in a long time.’’