National's general manager quits just before conference

The man who was implementing the National Party's branding and communications plan has resigned just eight months after taking over as general manager.

Greg Sheehan was promoted to the senior role in October to fill the shoes of Steven Joyce, who left after leading National's election campaign. Now, a week out from the party's annual conference in Christchurch, National is looking for another general manager.

Mr Sheehan said yesterday that he wanted to spend more time with his young family.

"I'm getting to the point in life where I'm wanting to do my own thing and spend a lot more time with my family. There's three of them, they're all young, and I think in the last couple of months I got to one hockey game out of about eight," he said.

Mr Sheehan said there was nothing sinister behind his departure. He was not looking for another job and hinted he might pursue personal business interests.

National's board was told of Mr Sheehan's decision last week and is working on a process to appoint a successor.

Party president Judy Kirk would not be drawn yesterday on whether that successor was likely to be found within National's ranks. "I wouldn't like to comment on that at this point - I need to speak to the board about the process," Mrs Kirk said.

According to the programme for next weekend's conference - which was written before Mr Sheehan resigned - he had been leading a traditional post-election constitutional review of the party's rules and procedures.

In addition, Mr Sheehan was implementing a branding and communications plan for National that was designed to pick up where the party's election campaign left off.

He had previously been the party's financial controller and spent about 18 months with National.

Mrs Kirk said she did not have any concerns about the continuity of the party's plans, and she understood Mr Sheehan's reasons for leaving.

"It's very demanding, politics," she said.