Goff emerges clear leader in caucus vote

Labour leader Phil Goff survived the first caucus vote on his leadership and is considering a major reshuffle later in the year, saying he wants to promote his more successful new MPs in the lead-up to next year's election.

Mr Goff yesterday warned his caucus the time for wound-licking over the election loss was over and they had to ramp up their efforts to challenge National and restore their own voting base.

He was unanimously reconfirmed as the party's leader at the full-day caucus at Waipuna Lodge in Mt Wellington. Deputy leader Annette King was also re-elected unchallenged.

The two MPs most often touted as holding leadership ambitions, David Cunliffe and Shane Jones, both said they had not considered challenging Mr Goff.

Asked if they would rule out mounting a challenge at any point before next year's election, Mr Cunliffe answered with an emphatic no. "Absolutely ruled out. Never been interested."

Mr Jones initially said no comment before returning to say it was a "negative, divisive question".

"Absolutely no interest whatsoever in applying for leadership or doing anything that breaks our unity."

Asked again if he could pledge that for the full parliamentary term, he responded: "This is an attempt to be very divisive and to create rubbish. Bye bye."

Mr Goff said the decision to keep him on was unanimous and he believed caucus was happy with his performance.

"I don't think it was ever in question, except in the minds of the National Party, who like to play games with that. You're stuck with me for a few years more."

He is, in turn, likely to run the rule over MPs in what he said was a critical year for the party to start to rebuild.

Mr Goff has so far made only small-scale changes to the shadow cabinet he set up after the 2008 election. He said he was thinking about a major reshuffle either late this year or early next year - putting iron into the message he gave his caucus yesterday that they needed to push their portfolio areas harder and start to develop convincing policy.

He said it was a "rule of thumb" that the front bench held the most experienced MPs but promotions in his caucus would be based on performance and some more junior MPs were making a mark.

"Many of those new MPs have picked up their responsibilities and done really well. Those are the people heading into an election year you'd be looking at giving increased responsibilities."

But he did not believe any of his front-bench MPs were complacent about their positions, saying they understood that promotion depended on performance.

While Labour had a tough 2009 with National polling high, Mr Goff said that was to be expected by any party going into Opposition after a long period in Government.

He said 2010 was a critical year for the Labour Party and he expected his MPs to tackle National on policies his party deemed unfair - including any changes to the tax system that favoured high earners but penalised "average" New Zealanders.

Labour president Andrew Little will not rule out trying to get a seat in Parliament in next year's election, but said his immediate focus was rebuilding the party's membership.

The party has already begun its candidate selections for the 2011 election - in five seats nominations are due to close next week.