Rudman's city: Society rebels thumb their noses in both directions

By BRIAN RUDMAN

The mavericks of the Hugh Watt Society are under attack from both ends of the political spectrum.

On the left, the Labour Party has begun High Court proceedings to recover property the party claims society members walked off with when they stormed out of the Onehunga party organisation eight years ago.

Meanwhile, on the right, the Act party, worried about being "caught up in this controversy," wants the key figures in the society to either resign from Act or from the society.

So far the rebels have thumbed their noses in both directions.

Last Friday the Labour Party turned up the heat, serving a statement of claim on society secretary Margaret Burke at the Epsom offices of Act MP Rodney Hide. Ms Burke, one-time vice-chairwoman of the Onehunga Labour Party, is Mr Hide's paid electorate agent.

Another named defendant, Chris Diack, proved more elusive, reportedly unwilling to take receipt of the documents at his home.

They have a month to respond to the High Court.

You will recall the background, how, in December 1992, Mr Diack thought he had the nomination as Labour candidate for the 1993 general election in the bag. He had the Onehunga organisation on his side and, he thought, the local members of the selection panel.

What he didn't calculate on was former MP Fred Gerbic, one of his local selectors, changing sides. Mr Gerbic ended up supporting the head office choice, handing the nomination to centre-left candidate Richard Northey.

At this unexpected turn of events Mr Diack and his supporters exploded like disappointed football fans.

Eight years on, say Act acquaintances, Mr Diack still drones on about how he was robbed. At the time he and his supporters got their own back by separating the incoming candidate and his new organisation, from the Onehunga's party's traditional source of income - a rental bungalow.

At the time, the membership of the party executive and the Onehunga Labour Society Inc - later to become the Hugh Watt Society - was basically the same. In a subsequent series of rule changes, the pro-Diack society executive expunged any reference to the Labour Party in its rules and made themselves a self-perpetuating entity.

Head office Labour officials hoped that after letting off a bit of steam, the mavericks would hand back the property. They did not. Now new president Mike Williams has decided enough is enough.

Mr Diack is not flavour of the month - or the year, for that matter - in his new right wing home either. As an organ-grinder for minority populist faction leader Rodney Hide, he has plenty of critics. Fear of the bad publicity surrounding the Hugh Watt Society rubbing off on to Act has focused this opposition.

It led to Act's governing board issuing an ultimatum to both Mr Diack and Ms Burke and, subsequently, to the leaking of damaging documents to me.

Identical letters, signed by party secretary Tracey Wotherspoon, said: "There is a public perception - rightly or wrongly - that money that was originally raised by Labour Party activists for the benefit of Labour is somehow no longer available to Labour. This could well be a matter of public controversy as it has been before.

"Act does not wish to be caught up in this controversy. The fact that well-known Act activists are prominent in the Hugh Watt Society creates the impression that Act is involved. This is potentially damaging to the party ...

"The board believes that you should resign from either the Hugh Watt Society or from the party."

It concluded by calling on them "to take action for the good of the party."

A nine-page joint reply dated February 28, 2001, from "loyal Act troopers" Burke and Diack said that they had no intention of giving in to "malice and nastiness." It said: "We believe that when Act starts to succeed in meeting its external objectives, then it will stop turning in on itself."

Mrs Wotherspoon would not comment but Act president Catherine Judd, who took office after this letter was written, said that no further action had been taken in response to this nose-thumbing response, and none was planned. She insisted, however, that Act had never received any funds from the society.

As for Mr Diack and Ms Burke, they must be wondering, after becoming so unloved on both sides of the political spectrum, whether politics is really their sport. Then again, perhaps they enjoy being disliked.