Anderton 'power mad', says Donald

11.50am

Alliance leader Jim Anderton's split from his party while keeping his title and trappings of office are proof he is "power mad", says Green Party co-leader Rod Donald.

Mr Anderton yesterday announced he would not stand under the Alliance banner at the election but would lead another party, the details of which he would announce in May. Until then, he would remain leader of the "parliamentary party" of the Alliance as he had the support of the majority of its caucus.

But Mr Donald, who was a member of the Alliance until the two split before the last election, said Mr Anderton's actions were "outrageous".

"It's totally hypocritical and makes a mockery of his own Electoral Integrity Act and I hope the public judge him accordingly," he told NZPA from Canada.

"I think they will because I think people now realise the sort of person he is. While he's done good in the past, (they) will conclude that he's past it.

"He is power mad but worse than that, he's lost the plot."

Mr Donald and his co-leader, Jeanette Fitzsimons, decided to split from the Alliance after a special conference of their party in November 1997.

They negotiated a "separation agreement" with the Alliance under which they continued as Alliance MPs until Parliament adjourned before the 1999 general election.

A key clause of the agreement was that Ms Fitzsimons immediately step down as Alliance deputy co-leader.

"Jeanette and I continued to tithe for the Alliance ... there was a lot of anger within the Green Party that Jeanette and I honoured our Alliance pledge because members felt that the Alliance hadn't honoured their commitment to the Greens," Mr Donald said.

"The other big difference is that Jeanette immediately stepped down as co-deputy leader."

Mr Anderton has dismissed suggestions he should follow Ms Fitzsimons' example, saying he has the support of seven of the party's 10 MPs, while she had only two of 12.

Mr Anderton is supported by his deputy Sandra Lee and MPs Matt Robson, Grant Gillon, John Wright, Phillida Bunkle and Kevin Campbell, who all diverted their tithe to an account controlled by him several months ago. The tithe is 10 per cent of their pay.

Laila Harre, Willie Jackson and Liz Gordon, who have remained loyal to the party's council and continued paying their tithe to it, will stand under the Alliance banner.

The Alliance's two umbrella parties, the Democrats and Mana Motuhake, will go in different directions; the Democrats with Mr Anderton, Mana Motuhake with its leader, Mr Jackson.

Both factions have given an assurance the Government is stable and Finance Minister Michael Cullen moved quickly yesterday to reassure the public the Government was stable while agreeing that having two Alliance factions in Parliament was "messy".

He described the split as sad but said the Government still had 59 "secure" votes and ruled out an early election.

"The Government is not looking at having an early election. There's no reason why we should ... We have exactly the same number of votes in Parliament that we had at the start," Dr Cullen said.

Ms Harre said she was extremely disappointed by Mr Anderton's decision to walk from the Alliance, while Mr McCarten felt betrayed.

"This is actually a resignation from the party and I don't know how people who are advocates of a party-hopping bill to stop this use technicalities and loopholes to get out of their obligations to their movement," Mr McCarten said.

However, both Ms Harre and Mr McCarten said they would work with Mr Anderton because they had to.

Mr McCarten spoke to his ruling council last night and said afterwards that the feeling among them was relief that a decision had finally been made in the five-month-old dispute.

He said the council would meet in Auckland on April 20 and 21 to discuss the leadership and the possibility of bringing forward the party's annual conference which had been scheduled for July.

The party's leader is elected at the conference, with Ms Harre likely to get the nod.

Ms Harre said she would seek advice on the leadership issue after Mr Anderton claimed leadership of the "parliamentary party" and told the Alliance it was free to elect a party leader.

Immediate questions were also raised about party resourcing and finances with Mr McCarten saying Mr Anderton must leave untouched Alliance party funds -- as New Labour had when Mr Anderton left Labour in 1989.

Prime Minister Helen Clark, who is filming a documentary in the South Island, reiterated Dr Cullen's comments that there was no question of an early election.

The only real change would be that she had to deal with two other groups in coalition instead of one, Miss Clark told National Radio.

"I would imagine that Laila Harre, as a minister, would be seeking to relate directly to Labour in the coalition while Mr Anderton and his group also related directly to us, so that's the change," she said.

- NZPA