A Critic-al view of the Alliance
The following article appears in the latest edition of Critic, the student newspaper at Otago University.

Whatever happened to the Alliance?
Posted: 2005-04-15 11:09:09

Remember the Alliance? The small left-wing party that went from being in government with Labour to polling less than the Outdoor Recreation Party in 2002? John Campbell voted for them. So did quite a few people I know. But apparently they were the only ones. Following their implosion and election drubbing three years ago, very little has been heard of the Alliance, but they still exist and are contesting this year’s general election. To kick off Critic’s wide and varied election year coverage, Editor Holly Walker talked to the Alliance’s Dunedin North candidate, local musician and 1995 Critic Editor, Victor Billot, about the future of his embattled party.

Billot was a founding member of Jim Anderton’s New Labour party; he joined in 1989 while he was still at high school. In that time he has certainly witnessed plenty of change within his party, which became the Alliance (incorporating the Greens and Mana Motuhake) in 1991, was the Labour government’s first coalition partner in 1999 before falling victim to the apparent curse of coalition (obscurity) and finally collapsing due to internal factionalism and disagreement over the party’s stance on Iraq in 2002. This culminated in the departure of figurehead Anderton to form the Progressive Coalition and the poll defeat of the remaining Alliance, led by political poster girl Laila Harre. Harre, once hailed as a promising junior MP with the potential to rival Helen Clark, has since taken up the position of New Zealand Nurses’ Organisation spokeswoman and will not be contesting this year’s election.

According to Billot, the Alliance’s drubbing in 2002 was disappointing but not surprising. Many thought the party would disband, but, while Billot admits there “were a number of suggestions about the best structure to continue with”, it was decided that the party had a distinct identity and clear policies that made it worth continuing. He says the party did some serious soul searching, though. “The main lesson I think we have learnt is that it is important for a left-wing party to base itself on good policies and grassroots activism, rather than relying on high profile media personalities”, he says. Here, Billot is referring not only to Anderton, but to former party President Matt McCarten, who took over the leadership from Harre but left to become a strategist for the Maori Party last year, only to be asked to leave that position earlier this year because of his simultaneous involvement with another new political party, the as yet un-launched Aotearoa New Zealand Party. Billot won’t be drawn on feelings within the party towards Anderton and McCarten, whose rivalry was the catalyst for the implosion of the party, other than to say, rather cryptically, “Whenever I get annoyed with individuals I just remind myself that in my lifetime we will see massive environmental and social upheaval”.

I put it to Billot that despite bad experiences in the past, having a charismatic and well known figurehead may be the Alliance’s best chance of regaining Parliamentary representation (it works for New Zealand first and worked for Act under Prebble, after all), but he firmly rejects this suggestion. “We need to build support for an idea, not a cult of personality. We want independent minded, politically aware members, not a bunch of sheep”. While the Alliance’s party list has not yet been finalised, a visit to the website reveals few familiar faces and a distinct lack of former Alliance MPs in key spokesperson roles. “The Alliance Party has changed a lot in the last few years”, says Billot. “One problem we don’t have is opportunists looking for an easy ride into Parliament”. As an interesting aside, students of political studies will be interested to know that well-known POLS 101 lecturer and general academic guru Jim Flynn is the Alliance’s Finance Spokesperson.

In light of the desire to avoid personality politics, the party has decided not to appoint a leader in the traditional sense this time around. Instead, leadership of the party will probably be shared by the top two candidates on the party list, in a manner not dissimilar to the Greens, whose co-leaders are Jeanette Fitzsimmons and Rod Donald. The comparison with the Greens is telling on other levels, as on most issues the two parties’ left wing manifestos are very similar. On the student front, both advocate free tertiary education, the abolition of the student loan scheme, and universal student allowances. Economically, socially and environmentally, their policies are also very similar. Since the 2002 election, which the Greens contested on primarily environmental grounds, the absence of the Alliance in Parliament has allowed the Greens to place more emphasis on leftist economic and social policies that previously had been championed by the Alliance. With so much policy cross-over, it’s somewhat surprising that the Alliance has not merged with the Greens since 2002, (funny, given that the Greens once existed under the Alliance umbrella). Yet this does not appear to be on the cards in the foreseeable future. “These days with MMP I don’t see why there is any reason we can’t have Alliance and Green MPs in Parliament”, Billot says. “In countries like Germany that have an MMP style system, you have socialist parties and Greens all in parliament”. But why would a lefter-than-labour voter want to vote Alliance when the Greens have similar policies and a far, far greater chance of Parliamentary representation? “I think the Greens are a party that appeals to a certain alternative lifestyle, liberal middle class element in the community”, Billot says. “They have a very strong environmental policy … The Alliance seeks to be a party of the working people of New Zealand. Our prime focus is on poverty, and on how working people are getting it in the neck”.

It seems highly unlikely, to state it mildly, that the Alliance will gain Parliamentary representation in the election later this year. Their leaflet, which has been sitting on my desk all week, has been noticed and commented on by a number of people, all with the same reaction: “The Alliance? Do they still exist? Ha”. The party faces an uphill battle to dislodge this perception, which has no doubt taken root in the minds of most New Zealand voters. Billot says, “lots of people believe in what we do. We just need to show them that we are still here”, and doing that will prove no mean feat. Billot is pragmatic in accepting that they won’t be in Parliament any time soon, but says their goal at the moment is simply to re-establish the Alliance as a voice in the political scene. He is also adamant, however, that the Alliance will be back in the House at some point in the future, “because there is a space for [us] in New Zealand”. “At the moment the sun is shining because the international economy has treated New Zealand well in the last few years. As soon as the inevitable crunch comes, a lot of people are going to be badly burned. Young people are trapped in debt, student debt, mortgage debt, credit cards, low paid jobs, high living costs. They will be looking for answers. The Alliance is going to represent those people. We are not going away”.

By Holly Walker
- posted by Victor @ 7:25 PM