Alliance founder, Mana candidate, Matt McCarten, to be Cunliffe's right-hand man

Wednesday 26th February 2014 3 Comments

Former New Labour and Alliance party founder Matt McCarten has been appointed chief of staff for Labour Party leader David Cunliffe.

In a move likely to please Cunliffe's backers on the left of the party and place further strain on relationships with centrist, senior members of his caucus, Cunliffe said McCarten's proven track record as a political organiser and strategist over more than 30 years qualified him for the role.

"He has spent his life fighting for social justice and workers' rights. His values are the values of the Labour Party and the values of the government I want to lead," said Cunliffe.

McCarten's early professional life was in the trade union movement. He split with the Labour Party in 1989 to help form the New Labour Party with dissident Labour MP Jim Anderton, then split with Anderton in 2002 over the Alliance's coalition with the Labour-led government of Helen Clark.

Anderton went on to form the Progressive Party and the Alliance lost all its parliamentary seats that year.

McCarten most recently stood for Parliament in the Mana by-election in 2010 as a candidate for the far left-wing Mana Party, led by Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira, and has been an adviser to Mana.

"Matt will be an incredible asset to Labour's team and it's great to have him on board," said Cunliffe in a statement.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

Comments from our readers

On 26 February 2014 at 2:46 pm Max Lewis said:

The choice for which party should form the next government just became starkly clearer. Max Lewis, Mt Maunganui

On 2 March 2014 at 11:27 am Ivan said:

Good old Labour. Just what they need another dumb decision.

On 3 March 2014 at 10:06 am Don said:

Strange that Labour would want to lurch to the left, when most votes are in the centre, not smart