Alliance death throes likely to be messy

By VERNON SMALL deputy political editor

The Government is stable and Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton's plans to leave the Alliance will not cause an early election, say key political sources.

But with Mr Anderton insisting he will stay on as leader of the party, and a tug-of-war looming over party membership and money, a huge number of unanswered questions remain about the future of the Alliance and Mr Anderton's unnamed "movement".

It is almost certain that no one will be able to invoke the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Act, the law preventing party hopping promoted by Mr Anderton and Prime Minister Helen Clark after public outrage at MPs "waka-jumping" under the previous National Government.

To be expelled from Parliament under the act, politicians must resign from their party or their leader, with the backing of two-thirds of the MPs in the party, must write to the Speaker claiming the deserter's actions have distorted the proportionality of Parliament.

Neither is likely. Speaker Jonathan Hunt is not required to consider actions by the non-parliamentary wing of the party, even if it elects a new leader or expels MPs from the Alliance.

Mr Anderton and the MPs supporting him - Sandra Lee, Matt Robson, Grant Gillon, John Wright, Phillida Bunkle and Kevin Campbell - need only say they are staying in the Alliance until the day Parliament rises for the election to avoid falling foul of the act.

Alliance president Matt McCarten has said that is morally unacceptable but he will not challenge it in law.

Maintaining the appearance of unity will also preserve the Alliance's funding, speaking rights in Parliament, and select committee representation.

How those will be divided between the two factions will be decided by internal negotiation over coming weeks.

Both sides have said they will be constructive and not disrupt the Government.

An agreement will probably be reached to allow MPs certain to stay in the Alliance - Laila Harre, Liz Gordon and Willie Jackson - to retain their share of parliamentary funding and staff, although Mr McCarten has challenged Mr Anderton right to control the money allocated to the party leader.

The internal management of the Alliance is also a potential flash-point.

Once the Alliance conference elects a new leader - almost certain to be Ms Harre - there will be a dispute over who chairs the caucus.

Mr Anderton believes he can continue in the chair because he has the backing of the majority of MPs.

But the 16-person Alliance caucus includes six party representatives, giving Ms Harre an overall majority.

Mr McCarten said the rules which ensured the party chose the leader and the leader chaired the caucus were established by Mr Anderton.

"This is a resignation from the party and I don't know how people who are advocates of a party hopping bill to stop this use technicalities and loopholes to get out of their obligations to the movement.

"To have Jim now saying 'I will remain the leader of this party to keep my perks and my salary', what is the legacy?"

Despite the internal feuding Ms Harre is likely to keep her cabinet post if she does not breach the convention of Cabinet collective responsibility.

Both factions have pledged to continue supporting the Government and to seek a coalition with Labour after the election.

But the Greens are likely to resist Mr Anderton being retained as Deputy Prime Minister if they are in Government after the election.

Green co-leader Rod Donald said yesterday that after his experience in the Alliance before 1999, "I'm not prepared to serve under him again. I simply don't trust his motives."

Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said she too had problems with Mr Anderton's leadership style, but she believed politics should be about policies, not personalities.

Ms Fitzsimons said Mr Anderton's move to start a new party but stay with the Alliance was not the same as the Greens' decision to leave the Alliance before the 1999 election.

She said the Greens were an existing party and the decision to stand separately was made by the party conference, not by a small group of MPs.

She had quickly stepped down as Alliance deputy leader.

"Rod Donald and I did not claim to lead the Alliance while trying to be elected as Green MPs."

A battle is brewing within the Alliance over who should control the party's money.

Mr McCarten yesterday warned banks of attempts to move Alliance money out of the party's accounts.

"I am not having money raised by Alliance members filched off to form another party," he said.

"I can put up with the hypocrisy here, but not with theft."

A spokesman for Mr Anderton said money in party accounts would remain with the Alliance, but that did not amount to more than $10,000.

Money raised for individual MPs' re-election campaigns and cash controlled by the Democrats, who quit the Alliance yesterday, would remain with the MPs.

Electoral Commission spokesman Doug Eckhoff said Mr Anderton would need to establish his party with 500 members, a constitution and democratic rules before it could be be included on the ballot paper for party votes.

Mr Eckhoff said the commission normally took at least two months to process an application to register a party.