Time for Shearer to stamp his mark

Labour Party leader David Shearer should be paying close attention to the current political landscape in Australia and the woes besetting his Labor counterpart, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Ms Gillard's arch rival and predecessor as Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, launched a push to reclaim the post he lost in 2010, resigning from his Minister for Foreign Affairs position and prompting Ms Gillard to call for a leadership ballot. Mr Rudd subsequently lost that vote by a comfortable margin.

The vote was the culmination of what has been a long period of destabilising in-fighting among the ranks of the Australian Labor Party.

No one is suggesting the same sort of rift exists in the New Zealand Labour Party.

Indeed, previous Labour leader Phil Goff made a measured and dignified exit post-election, a stark contrast to the way in which Ms Gillard deposed Mr Rudd in June 2010.

But neither was Mr Shearer's appointment as leader a unanimous one.

It's now well-documented history that Mr Shearer pipped fellow leadership contender David Cunliffe to the top spot after Mr Goff made the decision to step aside.

While the details of who voted for whom were supposed to remain a tightly-guarded secret, there was plenty of information leaking out even prior to the vote, indicating each candidate's supporters and a significant split in the party.

Mr Shearer's first task as Labour top dog should have been to unify the factions within his party, and Labour supporters will hope that task has been occupying his time, explaining his so-far relative low-profile as leader.

Now is the time for Mr Shearer to begin to stamp his mark on the party, to move to establish his own brand of political leadership and in the process outline a vision that might give Labour half a chance of returning to power in 2014.

That in turn should help to settle the troops in behind him, and prevent a repeat of the chaos occurring over the Tasman.

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