Mike Smith, Jim Mcaloon, Rob Salmond on Labour -Transcript.

Mike Smith - former General Secretary of the NZ Labour Party
Jim McAloon, Assoc Prof, Victoria University of Wellington History Department (currently writing official history of the Labour Party)
Rob Salmond, consultant to Labour Leader's office and David Cunliffe debate trainer.

Labour’s former General Secretary Mike Smith says the party needs to slim its organisation down.

Speaking last night on Prime TV’s “Prime Time with Sean Plunket” Mr Smith said the party could win in 2017 but it needed to slim down and get its shape right.
He said they needed to do this before they selected a new leader.

“The first thing they will have to do is go back and do what they should do and have a look at what's gone wrong,” he said.

“They need to and have a look at what they need to get right.

“And if they do that first, if they get the horse fit then they can worry about who's sitting on the back.”
He conceded that the leadership was a current media issue but said he didn’t it's the issue that needed to be resolved at the moment.

“I think it’s act in haste repent at leisure,” he said.

“You know why do we need to rush to change a leader now, because those first decisions you make if you get them wrong they're very hard to unpick, and I think we've seen a few first decisions in the last little while that haven't been the best ones.”

Rob Salmond, a consultant debate trainer to David Cunliffe during the campaign, said the party had issues which were structural and that make it harder to get things done.

“And one of those issues is that we very much enjoy our committees in the Labour Party, and we enjoy very large ones, and sometimes that stands in the way of doing things.”

Mr Smith said it had been much better than Labour at getting a consistent message over time and reinforcing it.

“I've watched this for several years, they just say the same thing again and again and again, and you’ve got to do it early, you can't wait for an election, he said.

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Labour’s former General Secretary Mike Smith says the party needs to slim its organisation down.

Speaking last night on Prime TV’s “Prime Time with Sean Plunket” Mr Smith said the party could win in 2017 but it needed to slim down and get its shape right.

He said they needed to do this before they selected a new leader.

“The first thing they will have to do is go back and do what they should do and have a look at what's gone wrong,” he said.

“They need to and have a look at what they need to get right.

“And if they do that first, if they get the horse fit then they can worry about who's sitting on the back.”

He conceded that the leadership was a current media issue but said he didn’t it's the issue that needed to be resolved at the moment.

“I think it’s act in haste repent at leisure,” he said.
“You know why do we need to rush to change a leader now, because those first decisions you make if you get them wrong they're very hard to unpick, and I think we've seen a few first decisions in the last little while that haven't been the best ones.”

Rob Salmond, a consultant debate trainer to David Cunliffe during the campaign, said the party had issues which were structural and that make it harder to get things done.

“And one of those issues is that we very much enjoy our committees in the Labour Party, and we enjoy very large ones, and sometimes that stands in the way of doing things.”

Mr Smith said National had been much better than Labour at getting a consistent message over time and reinforcing it.

“I've watched this for several years, they just say the same thing again and again and again, and you’ve got to do it early, you can't wait for an election, he said.

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TRANSCRIPT 'PRIME TIME WITH SEAN PLUNKET' .26/09/14

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