Matt McCarten: Lee's gaffe shows wider defect in the system

The MT Albert by-election is over. National's greatly lauded new face, Melissa Lee, has been a disaster. Lee's foot-in-mouth justifications over a motorway being built through the Mt Albert electorate clearly show she is a political lightweight. Before she was a list MP she was a presenter. Clearly she misses her autocue cards.

It is mind-boggling anyone would claim the benefit of having a motorway through your neighbourhood would reduce crime because crims from South Auckland (read: "brown people") would be going too fast in their cars to pull over to burgle a few houses.

As columnist Brian Rudman rightly says, if that was the rationale for building the motorway, it surely would have been more sensible to build a tunnel. That way, they couldn't get into the electorate at all.

Lee's initial refusal to back down exposes her true character. When it became blindingly obvious she had kneecapped her own campaign, her forced apology only made it worse. Her "If what I've said offended some people then I apologise for their hurt feelings" is the smarmy response people say when they are not sorry. Her supporters say her gaffe is the result of inexperience. It's more than that: it shows her arrogance. Sarah Palin without the charm.

When even the leader of your party calls your comments "stupid", the only job you have left to do is turn off the lights on your way out.

Despite Labour overriding local wishes and imposing a candidate on Mt Albert, it was always going to be difficult for Lee to defeat Labour's David Shearer. It won't be long before polls are published showing Shearer with an unassailable lead. This will be a great relief to the Labour Party, particularly Phil Goff. Assuming that happens, it raises an opportunity for the Greens candidate, Russel Norman, and Act's candidate John Boscawen.

In by-elections, when the contest is close between the two main parties, the smaller parties get crushed. However, when there is a big margin between the two main party candidates, it's assumed the frontrunner will win well. This means a third-party candidate can pick up the undecided vote and a large number of voters from the other trailing candidates. The Greens and Act parties are good street campaigners and one or both will do well if Lee falls out of contention.

But that aside, Lee's meltdown shows she was clearly unsuitable. She was put forward by her caucus and that raises real questions about democracy. The parliamentary leaders of National, Labour, Act and Green parties all effectively appointed their candidates. They could do this with ease because mass-member political parties no longer exist.

As membership has dwindled, control of parties has moved to parliamentary caucuses.

There used to be a time when National could claim party membership in the hundreds of thousands. Labour could boast a similar number when including its union affiliations. Insiders tell me National now has fewer than 25,000, Labour 15,000, Act and the Greens around 4000 each. Active membership is a quarter of that. Participation in party internal democracy is practised by less than 1 per cent of the country's citizens and controlled by few dozen in each party.

Consequently, we have a system where ambitious wannabes only need to suck up to a few powerful office-holders.

The party list (with the exception of the Greens) is decided by a small committee behind closed doors. On election night, these list candidates are elevated to Parliament with the associated power, salaries and perks by voters who don't even know they exist.

The fact that all the Mt Albert candidates from the parties were able to be imposed by their national leadership should ring alarm bells. We are critical of totalitarian states when their leaders appoint candidates for the people to rubber stamp at pretend elections. We're only one step away from that ourselves.

The reason the party candidates - except Labour's - have current MPs standing in Mt Albert is to lift the profile of their respective parties.

When I raise the central decision-making and caucus control with senior politicians, they shrug their shoulders and say this is inevitable as the days of mass party membership are over.

The Americans have managed a solution. All voters, when they enrol, nominate the party that they support. Alternatively they list themselves as an independent. When parties nominate a candidate, local voters who expressed an affiliation can vote. If that happened here, instead of the Mt Albert candidates being appointed by insiders and rubber-stamped by a few dozen "delegates" thousands of Mt Albert voters would have been able have a say.

Hillary Clinton was her party insiders' choice. Barack Obama would have never been elected as the US Democratic Party candidate if they ran their selections they way we run things here. Lee's gaffes this week point to a wider defect. The Mt Albert by-election is an ominous sign that something is not right with our democratic institutions.