Dialogue: Alliance ranks had better stick to their brand

By CHRISTINE RANKIN

Things have gone very quiet on the Alliance front but undoubtedly the problems still rage behind closed doors and will for some time. It is a fascinating dilemma made up of the dynamics of MMP.

The Alliance is an eclectic cluster of people in a mixed marriage of convenience rather than a true meeting of minds. How long this conflict has been simmering beneath the surface is difficult to know, but one imagines that the glue of power has, until now, been a strong bond.

It must be difficult for the rank and file, many of whom are feeling submerged beneath the juggernaut of Government, and who must moderate their passionately held beliefs in the interests of the maintenance of power.

The dilemma is to pursue those beliefs in conflict with the party and potentially face the loneliness of the political wilderness, or compromise and have a powerful position in governing the country.

Our politics are becoming increasingly presidential and leadership is becoming focused around leaders. Parties are not just defined by their policies but by their leadership.

Jim Anderton has personally forged a position for the Alliance in the political landscape. He is a strong and determined, personally powerful man. I don't like his politics but I do admire him. He is a clever political operator and so he should be - he has had years of practice.

But why are the rank and file so concerned? After all, from the base of a party that has very limited political support it has achieved a huge amount. Who would have believed that the Kiwibank would become a reality (not that it quite has), or paid parental leave would have been introduced this quickly given the fiscal pressures the Government must manage?

The jobs machine, tax increases, the renationalisation of our airline are all developments that are in line with Alliance policy. It's an impressive list.

With this record of achievement why are the rank and file restless, especially over an issue such as Afghanistan, which is a matter of principle, not a hip-pocket issue which is the concern of many of its low-income supporters?

The answer is that politics is about people and personalities, as much as it is about policies. No one else in the Alliance has a significant profile.

They must look with envy at the Greens. There they are standing strongly and independently for what they believe in and polling very well. The Greens are rapidly becoming household names. The apparent level of public interest in them as individuals is infinitely higher than it is in the Alliance.

Of course what the Greens have yet to figure out is how they become part of a Government and not just a ginger group. They might find themselves in exactly the same dilemma as the Alliance.

In fact, they may find themselves in a worse situation because while they come across as a credible team, their ambivalence about leadership means that they may have no one to lead them into power. They would probably say that's not necessary; time will tell if they're right or wrong.

Environment is to the economy what technology has become to business - its mainstream. The Greens may well find themselves merged with mainstream parties or out at the political periphery with the mainstream parties having adopted their policies.

The fact is you reap what you sow. With MMP it might be easier to get into Parliament and into prominence through a third party, but it is more difficult to get into a position of real power. Third parties are ginger groups in politics at present.

I remember my one and only meeting with Mr Anderton soon after the election. He was very entertaining on the subject of possums and when I expressed horror at the thought of eating one he was most indignant. Jim assured me that possum stew was very similar to rabbit and defied me to be able to tell the difference - not a competition that I want to win.

He didn't seem anywhere near sufficiently impressed by my black possum-trimmed suit, but I digress.

The bottom line is that the Alliance is nothing without Jim Anderton - like it or not. It's a fact of leadership. It's the price of politics. It's a price of third party status.

There's a truth that I heard at a leadership programme I attended in the United States: "You dance with the one who brung you." That's what the New Zealand First politicians learned to their demise. It's what the Alliance rank and file don't seem to be able to comprehend.

They do not have a future without Jim Anderton and they only have a future based on his patronage. Jim is the brand, Helen is the brand, Bill wants to be a brand but isn't, and the Greens are against brands because they smack of globalisation.

They could learn the hard way.