Repackaged Labour slow to show colours

First Reading - By VERNON SMALL - The Dominion Post

OPINION: Eight months ago to the day Labour awoke to find itself out of power for the first time this century.

Eight months to work out how to present as a viable government in 2011.

Eight months to replace the leadership and establish a new team.

The last of those they achieved at breakneck speed.

By close of play on November 9, Helen Clark and Michael Cullen had signalled their exit and the tumbrels were rolling for president Mike Williams.

It took till this week for secretary Mike Smith to announce he was going too, completing the cleanout. (The anecdote goes that when Mr Williams told the party he was stepping down, he said Mr Smith would be going too - only for Mr Smith to "dispel his misapprehension".)

The uncontested transition to Phil Goff, Annette King, and Andrew Little as president, avoided debilitating infighting. But it also thrust Mr Goff into the limelight when he was bound to be overshadowed by a new prime minister.

Denied a honeymoon of his own, Mr Goff desperately needed to nail the Mt Albert by-election.

He owes David Shearer a big debt of gratitude (and National's Melissa Lee an honourably mention) for a majority to rival Miss Clark's. It has dispelled for now speculation that his leadership is anything but secure.

But if personnel issues have been addressed, and hits registered on the new Government - the low-ball Jobs Summit being the most obvious - the "propose" part of the "oppose, propose and depose" trilogy has moved at snail's pace.

First, areas where the party felt it had genuinely lost the sympathy of the voters had to be neutralised. Labour may have argued National's adoption of so many core policies meant it had won the battle of ideas.

But self-flagellation was needed over the Electoral Finance Act and the foreshore and seabed law (where its over- reaction had spawned the Maori Party and driven it into National's arms).

But beyond those, the party has been cautious even in signature policy areas. National's move to allow more taxpayer- funded operations in private hospitals drew muted opposition from Labour's Ruth Dyson. Likewise Housing Minister Phil Heatley's potentially radical policy on state house sales.

It has not all been "slowly, slowly, bide our time". David Parker has kept up a steady barrage over ACC, Clayton Cosgrove is in permanent high-dudgeon over everything Judith Collins does or says. David Cunliffe has been at the select committee non-inquiry into banks like a dog with a well-gnawed bone.

Now, the cliched wisdom is that an electoral trouncing prescribes that an opposition take its medicine, learn its lessons, stay focused and constructive, avoid being overly negative and keep its policy powder dry.

But there is a growing unease among some grey heads in the party that things are all a bit too pragmatic; out-Clarking Clark. If vision was hard to articulate in Government, it is crucial in opposition.

There is also a growing fear the party is missing the boat in the economic crisis; that it is so extraordinary and the rise in joblessness and the need for skills training is so core to Labour that it should move beyond criticism to solutions.

As one Labour activist said, "we know unemployment is up and National is not doing enough . . . but it would be nice to know someone has some ideas".

So if it thinks the Reserve Bank needs more powers and the policy targets agreement - or even the Reserve Bank Act - needs changing, why not say so? In Mr Parker and Trevor Mallard, Labour has at least two senior members keen to see a new approach to monetary policy.

Now might also be the time to get serious about a capital gains tax on property investments (but exempting the main family home).

The working group on tax policy, convened by Finance Minister Bill English, is looking for ways to broaden the tax base so personal and corporate taxes can be lowered without undermining revenue and adding to the debt mountain.

And there is no better time, politically, to tax capital gains than when no-one is making them.

Labour insiders are promising limited policy releases this year, around the party's annual conference in Rotorua in September - Mr Goff's first as leader.

And, to be fair, Mr Cunliffe is sending coded signals of change ahead.

On Labour's Red Alert site he defended the past approach, with provisos.

Its relatively orthodox approach to monetary policy came "at a time when the prevailing conditions appeared that the policy framework was working well".

And again: "Labour's approach to banking policy was orthodox, responsible and appropriate for the time."

If that was then, what about now?