Anderton appeals for support of party members

3.00pm

Alliance leader Jim Anderton has again called for party members to support him in his dispute with party president Matt McCarten and a group within the Alliance council.

Mr Anderton and his deputy, Sandra Lee, made the request in a letter sent to Alliance members at the weekend.

In it, they outline their argument for continuing to work with Labour in Government and give members a choice of boxes to tick with the options:

* Stay on course as commonsense, constructive coalition partners, working for Alliance values and policies; or

* Head off on an alternative course of opposition politics.

Mr Anderton released the letter to the media in what he said was a proactive move.

"In my experience, with matters like these, if you're sending (letters) to 4000 or 5000 people they inevitably drop off the back of a truck somewhere and people get hold of them," he said.

"The purpose is certainly to communicate with the membership of the Alliance my views and Sandra Lee's views on what has been happening, insofar as we fully comprehend it ourselves, and to get some feedback from the members."

The letter said a "significant" number of Alliance council members had never been able to accept that the party had agreed in 1998 to enter a coalition with Labour. When it did that it had to put aside opposition strategies and work towards achieving the best policies it could.

"It has come to the point where the present Alliance council is even going to consider whether it wants to be a coalition partner with Labour after the next election," the letter says.

"The very fact that this is on the table for consideration illustrates the degree to which some members of the Alliance council are following a path fundamentally at odds with the strategy that has been formally adopted and supported by members."

Dissenting members were "irrationally" ignoring the economic, social and political gains achieved in Government, the letter said. It ignored the mandate achieved at the last election and the overall popularity of the Government.

Mr Anderton and Ms Lee accused "some Alliance members at a senior level" of doing little other than try to find ways of attacking the Government, as well as:

* putting almost no effort into building branches and membership;

* doing virtually no fund raising;

* treating unpleasantly members who support the coalition, and making some unwelcome.

The letter finishes by "respectfully" asking members to support Mr Anderton, Ms Lee and the five other Alliance MPs paying their tithes into an account separate from the party council. Laila Harre, Willie Jackson and Liz Gordon still pay their tithes to the party account.

Mr Anderton told reporters the letter was not meant to be either conciliatory or aggressive.

"It's meant to put the facts, as we understand them to be," he said.

- NZPA