Anderton starts up Mount Impossible

By AUDREY YOUNG political reporter

Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton waited a respectable two hours after Parliament was dissolved yesterday before joining his Progressive Coalition - or strictly speaking "Jim Anderton's Progressive Coalition" as his new party will be called on the ballot paper.

Now, he is leader of two parties at the same time. He is parliamentary leader of the Alliance, but only in theory because Parliament is dissolved, as well as leader of the Progressive Coalition.

"I don't see any contradiction whatever," he said

Asked yesterday who he was at the moment, he said: "I am Jim Anderton, MP for Wigram. But I am campaigning for a new mandate for the next Parliament as the leader of the Progressive Coalition."

The new party is doing it by the book.

Its executive met on Monday night and resolved to invite Mr Anderton and fellow Alliance defectors Matt Robson and Democrats Grant Gillon and John Wright to join the party.

General secretary Marty Braithwaite said the MPs formally applied in writing yesterday and were now officially deemed members.

Under the party-hopping law, Mr Anderton could have joined the Progressive Coalition at any time without jeopardising his position in Parliament.

But if he had resigned from the Alliance, he would have been deemed to have resigned from Parliament. So despite the Alliance expelling him in March he held on, and put off joining the Progressive Coalition to avoid appearing to belong to two parties.

The Progressive Coalition, which has 2000 members, will launch its election campaign on Saturday in the Northcote electorate, where Mr Gillon is standing.

That and Wigram are the electorates the party will target.

Policy priorities include:

* Full employment.

* Economic, industrial and regional development.

* Free visits to the doctor for all school-age children and superannuitants.

* No fees for first year of tertiary study.

* Emphasis on rehabilitation over incarceration of criminals.

Mr Anderton said he did not expect the party to keep his name in its title after the election.

It was a branding device that needed to be used because the party was so new it would not have television broadcasting time.

But Mr Anderton was clearly pleased that he scored 2 per cent in the latest One News-Colmar Brunton poll.

On the final results, he said: "Anything approaching 5 per cent would be a significant achievement from a standing start six weeks out."

Emphasising the underdog role, he described his task as "mission impossible."

Mr Robson is expected to be named deputy after the retirement of Mr Anderton's No 2, Sandra Lee. He is next in seniority.

Mr Gillon, the Democrats leader, said he supported Mr Robson.

"The Democrats' role in the party is well recognised and the last thing we want to do either as Democrats or as a caucus is to stray down the track the Alliance did of arguing over who is in which position on the list or in Parliament," he said. "We've got more important things to concentrate on."

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