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NZ Labour Conference 2015
Sunday 08 November 2015
MARTYN BRADBURY
Andrew Little – Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
The anticipation for Andrew Little's speech was built by Annette King and Grant Robertson's excellent speeches the day before.
Annette declared war on big sugar and pledged to defend public health while Grant Robertson forged a new way ahead with a future of work vision that may be the most intellectually challenging set of ideas Labour have ever considered.
They made National look out of touch.
So the stage was set for Andrew Little to follow those speeches up with something special.
He didn't fail to deliver.
The rebuilding Labour have embarked upon over the last year has born a speech that was one of the smartest and most clever speeches Labour have made to date. I've been covering Labour Party conferences since 1995, and I've yet to see a speech smarter than this one.
Little's no frills home brand language and annunciation went beyond the urban supporters and into the heartland that Labour have lost touch with.
No one mention of Dirty Politics, or John Key or Cameron Slater, Andrew focused on injustice, opportunity and jobs, jobs, jobs.
His idea to spend the $40billion in Government procurement on local business instead of cheapest offshore options is simple to understand and goes to the core values of Labour – safe jobs with dignity.
Little avoided the poisoned chalice of identity politics, he avoided petty personal attacks and he inoculated policy that spooked the middle classes. He took a swipe at the Twitteratti and cynics who say nothing can be done about poverty by stating very simply that he refused to give up on the issues that mattered.
Little was humble, he was straight talking and he looked strong. He didn't have the National Party lite language of Shearer, he didn't have the performance skills of Cunliffe, and he didn't have the caution of Clark, he had a very Andrew Little voice and it was genuine and convincing.
While Key jokes about masturbation and talks about flags and pandas, Littler talked about eradicating poverty, building opportunity for everyone and jobs, jobs, jobs.
After one of the most disastrous election results in its history, Labour look like their 100th Conference could be their strongest bounce back ever.
The Labour Party of NZ is not dead yet.
Martyn Bradbury
Editor – TheDailyBlog.co.nz
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twitter.com/CitizenBomber
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