This time last week, I was speaking at the Alliance Party national conference, the second speaker after Chris Trotter did the Saturday session. I understand that the speech is now online as a Quicktime movie at the Alliance Party site, and we discussed everything from the scheduled topic—branding, innovation and full employment—to how the party could be repositioned. It all happened in a weekend when my friend Victor Billot was elected co-leader of the party (Kay Murray is the other co-leader, and Paul Piesse succeeds Victor as president). Before you ask, the Hon Jim Anderton MP left the Alliance a long, long time and something like two or three leaders ago.
   I am slightly more to the right than Victor and some of the audience members are, but we all shared the view that the technocratic way of managing economies has led, at least in New Zealand, to an ever-widening gap between rich and poor and at the cost of domestic jobs.
   I do hope to post my notes on this site soon (part of them were blogged in August), and they do differ from the delivered speech. And I have made up my mind to support Victor: he is a decent, honest man who sees a place for the Alliance. He has an ideal and a vision in mind for how this society can work, and it’s not through importing Americanized policies from Robert McNamara and the Kennedy administration.
   I am a realist: if there is a swing toward John Key and National next year, we do not want a repeat of Ruthanasia and more economic pain for New Zealanders, and Alliance policies may be the balance that this country needs. I also question whether Mr Key has a vision.
   I did suggest to Victor that he challenges other political leaders in singing terms. Not too long ago, he was involved in bands in Dunedin. Now, if the Americans can have a bigger turn-out for American Idol than their presidential elections, then we could well encourage more voters in a sing-off.

Tags: politics, New Zealand, economics, employment Posted by Jack Yan, 03:55  permalink

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