KEY POINTS:
Progressive Party leader Jim Anderton has given a strong indication that he is far from ready to retire, as Parliament's rumour mill works overtime on who may quit at the end of this term.
Mr Anderton turns 70 in January.
"I haven't made a decision not to stand,"
he said when asked by the Herald whether he might put his name forward for the Wigram seat in 2008.
"I'm enjoying what I'm doing and am not decrepit yet. A bit of grey hair around the Cabinet table is not a bad thing."
Mr Anderton is one of many MPs whose futures are the source of speculation around Parliament, with the Labour Party in particular likely to announce a number of retirements ahead of next year's election.
Labour's leadership has spoken openly about the need to rejuvenate the party list, and at the weekend Speaker Margaret Wilson was reported as being tipped to quit at the end of this term.
Through a spokeswoman yesterday, Ms Wilson said only that now was about the time in the parliamentary term when people looked at their options.
But she had made no decision yet, the spokeswoman said.
Labour Party president Mike Williams said Ms Wilson was not one of the handful of MPs who had already approached him to indicate they would not be standing again.
Names regularly mentioned as likely to be missing when Labour fights the next election include Dover Samuels, Paul Swain, Dianne Yates and Ann Hartley.
The release of the final electoral boundaries in September is likely to be a trigger for moves, with internal questions likely to be asked of some people if they do not signal a departure.
Mr Anderton, Labour's close ally in Government since 1999, heads his own single-MP party and therefore will face no internal pressure to move on.
He argued it was valuable to have older heads around the Cabinet table.
"The population of New Zealand is ageing, and we need representatives of that percentage of the population as much as we need the young and virile 30-year-olds."
Mr Anderton was elected to Parliament in 1984 as a Labour MP representing Sydenham. He has been president of the Labour Party and was Deputy Prime Minister from 1999 to 2002.
"If I was sitting on the back benches hitting people over the knuckles with a wet press release, I might be a bit less enthused," he said. "But when you're in a position like mine where you can make a difference and you can do things - that's what you go into politics for, after all - you'd be stupid if you said, 'Oh, gee, I have a hard job now [and leave]'.
"I'm not about to look for another vehicle to make change. This is the best vehicle in town and no one need doubt my commitment to this present Government and how it's going about its business."
