The “captain’s call” could become a thing of the past, at least for the Labour Party, with members this weekend having the opportunity to vote on a rule change that would effectively ban them.
A “captain’s call” is an informal convention of New Zealand politics which allows a leader to decide a party’s policy, at least as long as they’re in the captain’s seat.
For over a year, Labour has been grappling with a particularly controversial captain’s call: Leader Chris Hipkins’ 2023 decision to rule out a capital gains tax and a wealth tax in 2023. …
The Herald has obtained a proposed amendment, put up by region one of the party, which runs from just south of Auckland up to Northland, which would only allow a change to the party’s manifesto if the caucus and party policy council jointly agree − and even then, this can only be in “matter of great urgency”.
So a future Labour Party PM would be able to be over-ruled by the Party’s policy committee. This is an attempt to politically castrate Hipkins.
The council includes members of the caucus, the party’s out-of-Parliament operation, and five elected members. Currently, those elected members are: CTU chief economist Craig Renney and Toby Moore, both former advisers to former Finance Minister Grant Robertson, former MP Michael Wood and Former Hamilton West candidate Georgie Dansey, and Labour member Jo Spratt.
Michael Wood would become more powerful than he was as a Minister, and all without even having to be elected to office. No more problems with share portfolios.
This is a blatant attempt by the hard left faction led by Wood to either take power away from Hipkins, and give it to themselves.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
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