Anderton aide quits after 7 years

By PAULA OLIVER and NZPA

A key adviser to Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton is leaving to set up his own media consulting business as talk of an early election gathers pace.

John Pagani, a press secretary and loyal backer of Mr Anderton, will finish at the end of this week after more than seven years of service.

Yesterday he rejected any suggestion that he was leaving to help set up the Progressive Coalition.

Mr Anderton would not comment on whether Mr Pagani would be given work by the Progressive Coalition, saying he was "not formally associated with" decisions made by that party.

Mr Pagani said he intended to run a media consulting business from home.

He had been thinking of starting his own business for some time, and would continue to be available to Mr Anderton as an adviser.

The recent Alliance meltdown had delayed his departure by six months.

He had "one or two" clients.

But Alliance president Matt McCarten said Mr Pagani had resigned when he saw time running out for his boss.

It showed "one of Jim's chief lieutenants reads the writing on the wall".

"What you have is a bailing out of key personnel because they know, and the country knows too, that the PCP (Progressive Coalition Party) won't survive, post-Jim," he said.

"Someone like John would know that post-election they would not be on the very generous salaries they're on now. They're all looking for lifeboats."

Mr Anderton is favoured to keep his Wigram seat, but his new party is barely rating in the polls.

Before working for Mr Anderton, Mr Pagani was a radio producer for broadcaster Paul Holmes.

Mr Anderton said the "extraordinarily loyal and committed" Mr Pagani had played a "significant and stressful role" in Parliament for seven years.

"There is no good or bad time to go, but John has offered and will continue to support my role as Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Alliance in Parliament through to and - who knows? - beyond the next election," he said.

Mr Pagani's departure comes as talk of an early election gathers momentum.

Speaking on TV's Breakfast show, Mr Anderton said the Labour Party would be "pretty silly" if it was not thinking of an early election.

"You wouldn't have to be a rocket scientist to work out what people might be thinking if your main opponent is sinking in the polls and you were rising," he said.

"Politics is about the windows of opportunity that open up, and there's certainly one there for the Labour Party at the moment."

After chairing a short Cabinet meeting yesterday, Mr Anderton fielded questions about whether he expected to remain part of the Government after the election.

He said it was up to the Prime Minister and the party that won Government to decide on coalition partners.

"At the last election, Helen Clark said, and I haven't heard anything different from her now, that, even if the Labour Party won a sufficient number of votes to govern on its own, they would still seek a positive contribution from those that it believed it could govern constructively with."

At the Labour Party conference last weekend, Mr Anderton and the Alliance were mentioned in only one line of Helen Clark's address, fuelling speculation that Labour was distancing itself from them and preparing to govern alone.

Mr Anderton said he was not in politics to gain pats on the back.

"I think I've had considerable public loyalty from the Prime Minister ... I don't go around with a begging bowl looking for public gratitude," he said.