This is None of My Business, but … Labour Leadership Qua Women & Maori MPs.

I can’t be bothered with the strategising of party politics, unless it impacts on policy that may sometime be forced on me. So, let’s look at the Labour women:

Really excited to hear from all the Labour leadership contenders about their position on getting more women into leadership positions.
— Kate Sutton (@Kateannasutton) August 25, 2013

At the time of writing this, not a single woman MP from Labour has put up their hand to democratically contest the Labour leadership: this from the party just two months ago where many MPs were calling for gender quotas in the party.

Labour women MPs cannot expect to be given by quota what they are not prepared to fight for when they have equal opportunity with Labour men. Further, with Shane – gelding – Jones in the contest, you can forget a party gender quota should he win even deputy. His hand up for this contest yesterday, should have been all the incentive Labour women required to throw everything they have to gaining leader, deputy, or finance.

There are many capable Labour women MPs, so why are you not running?

Furthermore, I agree with Morgan Godfrey: this is the Labour party, of course it needs Maori represented in the leadership and at the policy table, so given the only Maori in the running so far is Jones, then strategically the case could be made for one of the very able Maori Labour women MPs to run.

But whatever, all I’m saying is a woman must have a go. Because this will become my business if, when Labour ever gains that sandpit in the Fortress of Legislation, it then attempts to implement not just a gender quota within the party, which I couldn’t care less about, that’s Labour Party business, but also force it on the private sector, making gender quotas an issue of the voluntary, free society, versus the coerced one again. If no woman contests this, I'll be pointing out the double standard here.

Also, my offer, seriously made, for a single election cycle to give my vote to Labour in 2014, on the conditions I have prescribed to Maryan Street, another able MP, still stands.

Random thoughts:

Delving deeper into this, New Zealand’s first transgender politician, Georgina Beyer, has made the observation yesterday that if Grant Robertson wins the leadership – and if I voted Labour he would be my pick to unite the caucus – then his sexuality would lose Labour the working class vote in South Auckland. So perhaps the women of Labour are worried such bigotry in the Labour voting base would damage Labour’s chances also. Two things:

That doesn’t stand up historically, citing Helen Clark.

Just like Grant Roberston, that doesn’t matter, it concerns next year’s election: one of you, or better, more, need to be contesting this leadership.

Albeit Beyer’s comments do reflect how Left politics is sadly about the collective identity, which lends itself to stereotypical thinking and bigotry, because thinking and therefore policy is designed around identity with a  group, be it race, gender, tribe etc, rather than the classical liberal individualism born of the refulgent mind I advocate which can be the only basis to the free, enlightened society.