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Parker withdraws, backs Shearer

by Whaleoil on December 1, 2011

Stuff are reporting that David Parker has lost his bottle for the battle and pulled out of Labour’s leadership challenge. He is now backing David Shearer.

In a statement Parker said: “I am formally withdrawing from the leadership race of the Labour Party. I remain committed to Labour ideals and will work hard to achieve them for New Zealanders and the country.

“There is growing support for a new face to lead the Labour Party. I intend to support David Shearer in his bid.”

It looks like Team Shearer is the front runner now.

Trevor Mallard must be gutted, though Stuff is reporting that Mallard had already jumped ship to Shearer. Nevertheless he has spent the last two days spreading murk and rumours about Shearer on behalf of Parker. Now he will have to fall into line.

It is clear now though that there is an “ABC” campaign in place now. Anyone But Cunliffe.

Parker’s main pitch was to protect the jobs of the older members of caucus. That promise has proven to be very hollow.

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  • kevin

    Blood letting as you predicted… helicopters flying in formation?

  • Mirtnan

    All the way from New York with a directive from the supreme leader to Parker.The United Nations want Shearer.Parker will get a job there as well as the Labour castoffs.Clark, Carter ,Darren the ex LIEBOR WHIP hmmm.Helen Clark has spoken.Now that Cunliffe has been culled as not needed on the voyage ,i am predicting he will resign be a waka jumper and sit in Parliament for the next three years making faces at the whole chamber.Wonder will he revisit his damning tape when he was electioneering with the Mana Party,most people at that time realised all he was, was a beggar on horseback.

  • Anonymous

    Still even though Labour got a pasting in the election, first thing that comes to mind is = Cluster Fuck….

    They need to put a fair few of the old in trough wrinklies in the Waste Disposal…

  • Gazzaw

    It must be fucking chaos in the labour ranks right now. Does anyone know who still backs cunliffe?

    • http://www.whaleoil.co.nz Whaleoil

      His reflection is onboard

    • Kosh103

      Good. It needs to be a fight. People need to see the Labour leadership as something worth fighting for.

      • http://twitter.com/Jazr0d Jazr0d

        its like the retarded kids fighting over the front seat on the special bus

        painful yet hilarious to watch

  • Ear to the ground

    Parker in a finance role. Is he not a shareholder in a Dunedin mortgage fund that has been closed.

    • Offers

      Dig a wee bit into Parker’s back ground and his failed businesses in Dunedin and methinks someone has had a prudent word in his ear. He ran a number of Ltd Liabilty companies in Otago during the 1990s that went under.

  • Anonymous

    It’s very much looking like Shearer now (given that there’s apparently a lot of dislike of Cunners inside Labour).

    • Rightry

      Cunliffe is an up-himself git.  Parker, after seeing him on tele, is a blithering fool with a voice like a child and who couldn’t get his sentences right – PM material? – holy smoke.  Shearer might be the man, but his performance on tele was mediocre.  The fact they were discussing the leadership at all on tele was perplexing and a pretty bad call if you ask me.  It’s a party matter, not a voter issue.  They were all queued up like school kids going “pick me, pick me” when we don’t have a bloody say.  It was a silly thing to do and just looked divisive.  Leadership is about earning respect – it’s not a fucking boxing match. Even if it ends up as one, that’s why some things are talked about in-caucus.  Dickheads.

  • Jaffa

     More refugees coming our way if he gets to be PM!

    • Anonymous

      Gawd….I hope not.  

    • Gazzaw

      Agree. Depends how many refugees Hulun needs us to take to clinch the Secretary General’s job. 

  • Peter Wilson

    What was Shearer’s spokeperson’s role in opposition. At least Key was the finance spokesperson before getting the top job. Really courageous stuff from Labour though!

    • Mirtnan

      Enviornment  spokesman ,science  and technology,   tertiary education, plus research,plus social engineering as taught by Helen Clark,and all the other UN despots.

      • Peter Wilson

        Wow, all the tough stuff. Absolutely nothing contentious or controversial.

        Who would be his equivalent in National with those portfolios? Nick Smith? Wayne Mapp?

        Cunliffe will be livid. As finance spokeperson he’s been talking about asset sales, CGT, raising the retirement age while Shearer gets to talk about saving the planet and investing in science. Heady stuff.

        The other things is that  politicians are taught about loyalty, building networks and climbing the ladder. And now Shearer come along, courtesy of Helen Clarke, all the labour mps will be thinking, why bother?

  • Anonymous

    We all know that “Darker” Parker is a “failed” laswyer, but in his “business life” wasn’t he the clown who sent a picture theatre in Dunedin broke? Just another Labour Party loser. It seems that most are either failed lawyers, failed school teachers or failed educated idiots with law degrees.

    • Peter Wilson

      They’re not failed teachers, on the whole I’m sure they are incredibly successful teachers. And therein lies the problem.

      If you can’t do, teach. And if you can’t teach, PREACH.

      • Warehi

        Peter you may well be right. Either way they are fuckwits. 

  • abjv

    You heard it first from the Whale (December 1, 2009)
    http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2009/12/of-rockets-pork-and-pollies/#disqus_thread

    Sir Michael has been known to be a good, good friend of Labour in the past, could it be perhaps that he is financing David Shearers bid to take over from Goff when the time is right?
    Sir Michael Fay famously had a brass plaque on his desk in his Auckland Office that said “Nothing for Nothing, Fuck you”.  One wonders what the something for something is? Because clearly David Shearer didn’t get the fuck you part otherwise he wouldn’t have been there.

  • Rightry

    Just watched the three Ds debate it out in front of Sainsbury.  The whole thing was pathetically painfully to watch. Each was trying to convince the public they were the best man for the job, talking themselves up – just horrible self-promotion.  They didn’t need to put themselves on TV to try to prove anything to anyone – the decision belongs to caucus. Just unnecessary.

  • DONKEY

    This is Labours attempt to revitalize – good fucking luck. Too many deep divisions here to ever work

    • Rightry

      …helped along by doing it all on national TV!  What a strategic fuck up!  Who the hell’s advising these morons?  More of this this idiocy and they’ll fuck their their chances in 2014 before they’ve begun – bloody priceless.

      • Troy

        Am I guessing that TVNZ will send the Labour Party a bill for advertising the labour party?  I couldn’t give a shit about the labour leadership – who approved the air time for them to deliver their individual political messages.. huh?

  • Geoff Houtman

    It’s a little bit “Idol” but all free publicity.

    Bet Cunliffe pulls out before the end of the roadtrip.

    • Rightry

      …and joins Te Mana.

  • bruno32

    At least we have hopefully seen the end of that lycra wearing cripple mallard. How scum like that can  have so much power in our political system is a source of bewilderment to me. The prik must have been bent to cosy up to helen and her gaggle for so long.

    • MrV

      He provided the role of attack dog, which was certainly used over the years.

    • Warehi

      Pewrhaps just like Howard Broad, but then is Mallard a pillow biter as well?

      • Troy

        He’s a good mate of Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaarles lol

  • axeman

    And they are going nuts on the SUB-standard. The dickhead bloke with a girl;s name is claiming a VRWC conspiracy to stop the Fiscal Creep becoming Liarbore No.1  

    Leading the charge AGAINST Shearer is that odious brown nosing prick gpresland who has extricated himself from Goofy’s arse to be fully wedged up Silent T’s posterior.

    • Warehi

      That was all a bit obtuse. Is the dickhead bole with a girls name Phyllis Goff or did you mean Darren Hughes?

    • http://www.whaleoil.co.nz Whaleoil

      Gweg Pwesland featured on TV on saturday night holding Cunners handbag as he triumphantly walked down the aisle at the Labour wake.

  • whalewatcher

    Cunliffe is unpalatable to many. Just hear him on the radio this week – he sounds petulant and arrogant. I’d never vote for him. Whale’s ‘Silent T’ moniker speaks volumes.

    the Herald reports Shearer is a former high-ranking UN official. Oh dear. Sent in to replace Helen by Helen, and if he becomes PM he will continue her unmandated legacy of giving away sovereign rights to unwanted UN treaties. We don’t need more of that. And to think Labour is banging on about ‘no mandate for asset sales’. At least National were open about that before the election. Clark did all sorts of unmandated stuff – treaties that usurp our sovereign rights, ditching our access to Privy Council, the Foreshore/seabed debacle (which lost her Maoridom), etc.

    So we don’t need another UN greaser selling us cheap.

    I will never vote for Shearer, and never for the Cunliffe

    • Warehi

      I would hope that you never vote for Labour either. Darren Hughes might come out of the woodwork to be a contender for Labour leader. He could be minister of Getting Young Boys Drunk and trying to take advantage of them.

      • diabolos

        Hughes was a tosser who deserved what he got.  Any good leftist would agree

  • Anonymous

     Comment I posted on The Standard…
    First up this is my first post and I am a National supporter (currently) – not a zealot. What NZ needs is a choice of leaders and political viewpoints. The last election was, according to Labour about policy not personality. Untrue. Personality will always play a role. The voting public (myself included) will always ask…”is he a leader I can follow?” I liked Goff and even voted for him a number of years ago when I was in his electorate but he does not exude the strength or qualities to lead a nation. To be blunt – if the leader does not have credibility in the eyes of the audience, the policies will be discarded out of hand. I think this is what happened to Labour even though I actually liked a lot of policies…just couldn’t see Goff as delivering. Perception as they say – is reality. Labours next leader needs to have the qualities people look for in a leader. I would like Labour to take their time and not vote on factional preferences but select someone NZ can look to as having the strength to lead a nation. Select someone with values (and not with a reputation of nastiness as this breeds doubt and mistrust). Find this person and you will give NZ a choice…and then the strength of the policies will be considered. I want a difficult choice next election as I vote on policy and leadership as most NZers will

  • Warehi

    For God’s sake, Phyllis Goff is a failed school teacher and a long term loser. In short he is a tosser. You don’t need to be a zealot to understand that. With the same reasoned logic, anyone with a sense of decency and compassion would regard John Minto as one of the great NZ no hopers of the last 100 years.

    • diabolos

      John Minto campaigned with Richards against Apartheid and earned the gratitude of a nation of oppressed black people.  History proved his cause right – and that of people like Muldoon (and john banks who was a member of the red squad who pummelled protestors) wrong.  Some need to ask themselves – what have you done – or “what difference have you made other than consuming oxygen…”

      As for Phil Goff – wash your mouth out mate … decency and compassion – some of the commenters here are appearing to be strangers to humanity let alone the two attributes you toss around like small change.

      • Warehi

        Sorry my son, you are so wrong. John Minto is a pompous self righteous prick. He labels anyone who opposes him a “racist”, a word he throws around with gay abandon. Minto is a useless shower of shit. How many votes did he get in the election? Bugger all!. Just goes to show what voters think of him. Apart from being one of the ugliest men alive, he is quite simply a joke. Just like the Mana party. And of course Phyllis Goff should go back to school teaching, a vocation which reveres mediocrity.

  • diabolos

    I repeat … John Minto stood for something that history has proved to be right despite any other rhetoric.  Personally i dont find the man engaging – and frankly who cares how many votes he got.  Mahatma Ghandhi was assassinated despite all he did for India. 

    Its a great shame mate that you resort to personal attacks on Minto and on Goff.  

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