Dunne gives 'loose lips sink ships' talk

By FRANCESCA MOLD political reporter

Peter Dunne has given his MPs the hard word.

The United Future leader laid down the law this week after suffering a run of bad publicity relating to the rather radical views, on sex education and Aids sufferers, of two of his party's new MPs.

Mr Dunne partly blames the media for "setting them up" but he has since warned his eight new MPs they need to keep their lips buttoned on their personal views and stick to espousing the party's policies.

"It was a salutary lesson for all involved," he said.

Mr Dunne does not want loose lips jeopardising the party's new relationship as a partner-in-support of the minority Labour/Progressive Coalition Government.

He said he planned to apply a firm hand to his band of new MPs as they settle into life as parliamentarians.

"They are good people but they know there is a steep learning curve ahead of them."

Mr Dunne told the Weekend Herald yesterday that his main focus for this parliamentary term would be holding together his own party and providing New Zealanders with a stable Government.

Last session he watched the Alliance, Labour's previous coalition partner, disintegrate and he does not want to head down the same track.

Mr Dunne believes a main reason for the Alliance implosion was that the party did not get enough credit for its achievements, such as the Kiwibank and paid parental leave.

There was also a sense that Labour undermined its junior partner by dismissing its major policy initiatives.

Mr Dunne is confident his tight-knit team will survive but he has been careful to back up that belief with a clause in his confidence-and-supply agreement with the Government ensuring each party cannot criticise the other's policy initiatives.

He knows the next session in the House will not be an easy ride. He predicts that National, the party he sided with most in the last Parliament, will "go for us".



Mr Dunne said he planned to sit down with Leader of the House Michael Cullen in the next few months to review each of the 94 pieces of legislation waiting to be passed.

He would also spend time with the new Government ministers, working out which United Future policies might be included in policy and legislation.

By signing an agreement with the Government, United Future has guaranteed action on three of its main priorities, including a Commission for the Family, stronger victims rights legislation and the fast-tracking of laws to improve roading.

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