Shadow Cabinet goes

Press, 11 March 1983, Page 1

Shadow Cabinet goes

Parliamentary reporter

The Opposition yesterday decided to abolish its Shadow Cabinet and let its leader allocate responsibilities to every member of the caucus. The Leader of the Oppositon, Mr Lange, said that he would announce the spokesmen next week. The caucus put the matter to the vote yesterday after only 10 minutes of discussion. The Prime Minisier, Mr Muldoon, immediately noted that “imitation was the sincerest form of flattery.” “In the absence of any

good ideas of his own. he could do worse than imitate mine," he said. The National Party had a spokesmen’s sys 7 tbm when it was in Opposition. (The Shadow Cabinet which was instituted by Mr Rowling in 1979, appointed 19 in the caucus of 43 to match Ministers on the Government side, but the elevation it gave those members rankled with those who were excluded, and exacerbated tensions in the caucus.) Mr Lange said that the advantages of the Shadow Cabinet were that spokesmen

were readily identifiable to the news media and the public, but its disadvantage outweighed these. The , list of spokesmen would not denote “pecking order, hierarchy, status, or ladders,” he said. Members would be listed in alphabetical order, with their areas of responsibility alongside. He did not discount that commentators and “the inevitability of politics” would give this neutral list a pecking order of seniority and importance. He was determined to

avoid the spokesmen's line-up used by the National Party in Opposition in 1974. Members were ranked from No. 3 to No. 32; the last had responsibility for grain and seeds. That was demeaning. Mr Lange said, and the Labour Party did not plan to do it that way. He wanted talent to flower and hierarchical structures did not encourage that. Rounds of Opposition spokesmen were becoming outmoded. Instead of limiting

them to the Public Trust Office, Government Life and State Insurance, rounds should pick up cities and canvass new technology, youth unemployment and retirement, Mr Lange said. A spokesman for the South Island was planned. Caucus committees would make sure that spokesmen did not trespass on one another's territory. Committees would probably have wide briefs, not specialities. Asked whether the departure from the traditional pecking order would deny the public a glimpse of possible Cabinet members in a Labour government in 1984, Mr Lange said that line-up was irrelevant in election of governments. “People vote because they have a leader they identify with, because the party has spirit, and because they believe in the policy,” he said. Only politicians, the press gallery, and about 2000 people who listened to parliamentary broadcasts were interested in the ranking of members of Parliament. Mr Lange said he would not announce his seating lineup until the session began. He is expected to dispense with the seating set-up in the House that has traditionally denoted ranking, and to seat members arbitrarily, except for his front row.