Labour's allies turn on Dunne

By VERNON SMALL

Labour's allies are attacking Peter Dunne's United Future party, claiming his voting record in Parliament does not fit with a centre-left government.

Alliance MP Liz Gordon said his record showed he was "a right-wing clone of National".

He had voted against the Government on Budgets and all confidence measures and opposed key policy changes such as the introduction of income-related state house rents, the renationalisation of ACC and the Employment Relations Act (ERA).

"Peter Dunne voted against virtually every piece of progressive legislation put forward by the Labour-Alliance Government. He claims to oppose extremism, yet he refused to support even moderate corrections to the far right agenda of the 1980s and 1990s," Dr Gordon said.

His support for paid parental leave "was the only light in a dark Tory tunnel".

A spokesman for Mr Dunne said he had opposed the ERA because it had completely thrown out the Employment Contracts Act for ideological reasons when what was needed were amendments, not a major rewrite.

He was not in favour of the renationalised ACC, preferring competition from the private sector.

He had opposed income-related state house rents because it was an ideological move with little fiscal effect - " just a matter of window dressing, really".

Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons also attacked Mr Dunne's record and asked if Labour supporters would be happy with it.

She said the Greens could form a government with Labour, and most Labour supporters wanted that.

Mr Dunne's spokesman said the criticism by Dr Gordon and Ms Fitzsimons came from the far left and lacked credibility.

"It has been finally demonstrated there is a significant part of the population that actually like less of that sort of behaviour and more centrist policies with some basic commonsense."

A Herald-DigiPoll snap survey on Monday showed Mr Dunne's party rising to 6.6 per cent after television's "Worm" gave him strong approval.

Meanwhile, Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson yesterday listed United Future among parties which had opposed the repeal of the Employment Contracts Act.

Last week he warned unionists against backing New Zealand First, saying they should vote for a Labour-led centre-left government.

However, Prime Minister Helen Clark declined to criticise Mr Dunne or United.

"I have done business with Peter Dunne before. He's making more supportive noises about doing business with Labour than I have heard in a long time, so let's just see where things stand next week.

"By and large he has been an Opposition member who has lined up with the National Party and Act, but there are some things he has been supportive on."

Parliament's database shows Mr Dunne voted against the passage of 60 laws passed by the last Parliament.

In a personal vote he opposed the law extending a moratorium on new casinos.

Greens co-leader Rod Donald asked how Mr Dunne could claim to be family-friendly when he effectively voted for more casinos.

Mr Dunne supported only 11 bills, the most significant being the one setting up the scheme to pre-fund superannuation.

In its weekly newsletter, Act said Mr Dunne had opposed measures he now claimed to support, such as putting a time limit on Treaty of Waitangi claims and a truth-in-sentencing bill.

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