Andrew Little sees role for Labour Party in council elections

Andrew Little appeared supportive of greater Labour party involvement in Hamilton local government politics after holding an informal gathering of party supporters there last week.

A Waikato Times story this week floated the possibility of local Labour and Green Party members forming a united ‘community ticket’ at the local government elections, a prospect Labour leader Little talked about last week after his visit to Hamilton.

“There are parts of New Zealand or cities in New Zealand where as a party the local party members and branches do get actively involved in local government campaigns.”

Little said that while party involvement in local government doesn’t happen in every city and that the culture in some places is that people don’t like to see party politics active in local government, he didn’t think that was the case in Hamilton.

“My sense in Hamilton is that party members there are keen to be more active in campaigning or supporting candidate campaigns to get a more progressive government in Hamilton City.”

Little was briefly in Hamilton after a day-long tour of the region last Thursday in which he met a dairy farmer from Otorohanga, held an open-air meeting at the University of Waikato, and visited the offices of Te Wananga o Aotearoa, Te Awamutu Courier and Tainui Holdings.

He ended the day with a drink in Hamilton at Speight’s Alehouse – with a gathering of about 40 supporters – and answered questions on a range of issues from police surveillance to co-operation with other political parties.

Party supporters in the audience appeared pleased with Little’s performance as leader. That included Doug Dean, 82,who confessed to initially having reservations about Little – when he first assumed the leadership – describing himself as hesitant about “how he would be as a speaker.”

Dean, a retiree who operated a panel beating business in the central city until 1996, said he no longer had those concerns about Little.

“He has surprised me.”

Paul Judge, 58, a tutor at Wintec, voted for Andrew Little in the leadership primary and was satisfied with his performance but saw a need for the party to come to an arrangement with the Green Party for it not to field candidates in electorates “where the Labour Party candidate is close to beating the National Party candidate.”

“That really seriously needs to happen.”

Speaking after the meeting, Little refused to rule out general election arrangements with the Green Party that might see the Greens not stand candidates in electorates like Hamilton East but said that discussions on the proposal weren’t currently taking place.