Findlay to seek Alliance Caucus Censure.

Former Dunedin North Alliance candidate, Quentin Findlay said that he was shocked and angry over an Alliance decision to vote against a Green measure to restore the Emergency Unemployment Benefit over summer.

Describing it as traitorous, Mr Findlay said that the caucus of the Alliance, and especially leader Jim Anderton, should be censured by the Alliance National Council, which is the governing body of the organisation.

ÒThe Alliance is a programmatic party, who's MPÕs are bound by the party platform. They are constitutionally obliged to vote in favour of party policy.Ó

Mr Findlay understood that there had been a split in Caucus over the issue, with the vast majority of Alliance MPs deciding to vote in favour of the measure and uphold policy, but that they had been waylaid by Jim Anderton and senior members of the Labour Party.

ÒJim is obsessed with the idea that any dissent against the government will dramatically destabilise it. What he is doing however, is destroying the Alliance in the process. He needs to understand that the Alliance membership decides policy and not him. Him and others need to bought into line by the party hierarchy, Ò Mr Findlay said.

Mr Findlay said that the entire situation was eerily reminiscence of the 1980s Labour Party, when caucus started voting against Labour Party policy. In that situation, Jim was the only MP committed to implementing the policy. Now at least the vast majority of the Alliance caucus approves of voting for the party policy.

Mr Findlay said that he remained committed to Alliance policy over the issue of returning to an Emergency Unemployment Benefit for students. Which was why he was publicly appealing for immediate censure of the caucus and the leadership by the council over this matter.

For further information:

Quentin Findlay (03) 473 7164

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