Delay to winning recognition for Malone shows MMP still developing

There are lessons to be learned from the time-delay in winning due recognition for New Zealand World War I hero, Colonel Malone, Progressive Party leader Jim Anderton said today.

"I first began lobbying for recognition for Colonel Malone in 1989.

"It took a while for my Private Member's Bill, which offered posthumous recognition for his war record, to be pulled from the lottery of the members' ballot but it was first pulled from the ballot in October 1991 where it was put to the House and defeated.

"I put the Bill in a second time a few years later.

"I was deeply disappointed that when it was put before the new MMP Parliament, the Bill was again defeated, in August 1997, by the National-NZ First coalition government.

"This was not a confidence vote in the government, but a Private Member's Bill in the name of an Opposition M.P.

"I know that some New Zealand First M.P.s, including a Cabinet Minister, supported the Bill but voted against it as a government bloc.

"As MMP becomes more mature, this sort of behaviour will die away. If MMP had been working in 1997 as well as it should have been working, then it may well have been that our-until now unsung hero, Colonel Malone, would have received due recognition years ago," Jim Anderton said.

On Monday, August 8, Jim Anderton will proudly speak at the unveiling of the plaque in Colonel Malone's honour at the Grand Hall, Parliament Building and at the Publication of Malone Papers at the National Library on Molesworth Street.

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