Caution on Jim Anderton

Press, 17 August 1983, Page 4

Caution on Jim Anderton

Parliamentary reporter The Labour Party caucus does not see the party president and candidate for Sydenham, Mr Jim Anderton, as its next leader for a long time to come. Labour members of Parliament said yesterday that speculation floated by the Prime Minister. Mr Muldoon, that Mr Anderton would be leader of the party within two years if it lost next year’s election, was wide of the mark. In 1987 or 1990, Mr Anderton would stand a chance, they said, but not before then.

If the Labour Party lost the 1984 election, the present Leader, Mr Lange, would be in trouble, but Mr

Anderton would not be promoted in any move to replace Mr Lange. Mr Anderton’s friends inside the caucus said yesterday that even they would expect Mr Anderton to serve his apprenticeship of five or six years before they would consider him eligible. He would need to take his place behind promising politicians who had been in Parliament longer; the names of the Deputy Leader, Mr Palmer; the member for St Albans, Mr D. F. Caygill; and the member for Lyttelton, Mrs Ann Hercus, were mentioned. Any disaffection with Mr Lange after a 1984 election loss would tend to lead to a search for a replacement among those people.

An election win in 1984 would establish Mr Lange as the party leader, and even in that event, Mr Anderton would not get a Cabinet position, M.P.S said.

Although Mr Anderton had a high profile as president of the party, this would lower when the “platform” went. He would become “another M.P., along with other new ones.”

Mr Anderton has recently confirmed his support for the existing leadership of the party: “There is only one leader of the Labour Party and that is David Lange,” he said this week. Last week he said that he was “working as hard as I can to get a Labour government, and that means work-

ing for Lange as Prime Minister.”

His firmest friends in the caucus say that he had trodden on “some of their coms” during his presidency by trespassing into the politicians’ arena in comments he had made. This would also work against any lightning endorsement of him as leader.

Last week Mr Ander;on brushed aside suggestions that he would follow in the footsteps of the Australian Labour Party leader, Mr Hawke, and move rapidly from the role of president to leader.

“My chances of getting any sort of leadership position in the Labour Government would be nil, I would think,” he said.