Kopu's ghost haunts Alliance kingmakers

By WARREN GAMBLE

"Remember the Alamein" is the overriding factor in the Alliance list, and party leaders say talent and proven track records are the key criteria this election.

Alamein Kopu's entry to Parliament via the list in 1996 and subsequent defection still haunt party chairman Matt McCarten and leader Jim Anderton.

Three other MPs also left the party - Jeanette Fitzsimons and Rod Donald when the Greens pulled out of the Alliance, and Frank Grover for Christian Heritage. Pam Corkery decided to stand down after one term.

Mr Anderton said Alamein Kopu was selected under a system favouring candidates put up by the Alliance member parties (she was a Mana Motuhake nominee) and based on representing groups such as the unemployed and older people.

Mr McCarten, the chairman of the selection committee, said that this year, despite some initial muscle-flexing, all constituent parties had agreed the list should be based on individual ability.

"There are no mistakes on this list," he said. "The criteria are: have they got the talent and ability to do the job, do they know how to work, are they staunch and are they straight?"

Mr Anderton said the list had no "outside stars." All those on it had solid records of working hard for the Alliance.

Although Mr Anderton was not on the selection committee, he was consulted on the process. His yardstick for the Alliance top 20 was that those who were not MPs had to be as good, if not better than those already in Parliament.

Although 20 MPs remains the Alliance aim, current polling shows they would get 11, eight of whom are sitting MPs and who fill the first eight list places.

Of the potential new blood in the next six places, assuming a better showing than polls suggest, two are from Auckland, and one each comes from Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington, and Dunedin. Only one, Heather Ann McConachy, is a woman, although the party can point to its three high-profile women MPs, and the fact that seven of the 13 elected in 1996 were women.

It also has a strong Maori voice with deputy leader Sandra Lee, ninth-ranked Willie Jackson and 13th-placed Des Ratima.