Puppet comes with the prize

By BERNARD ORSMAN

It's the $6000 question.

If Peter Dunne can worm his way into the deputy prime minister's seat then his puppet will grace Wellington's Backbencher Pub.

The pub was the scene of jubilant celebrations for Mr Dunne and 150 or so Christian soldiers on Saturday night. But instant fame is no guarantee of gracing the political drinking hole with your own Spitting Image-like caricature.

Speaker of the House A.D. Boycie told the Herald Mr Dunne would have to do better than bring a few hangers-on into Parliament before joining the grotesquely comic figures of Helen Clark and company.

It is costly - about $6000 - making a new puppet and Mr Dunne would have to become deputy prime minister to justify the outlay, the landlord says.

The closest Mr Dunne gets to stardom at the Backbencher is a passing mention of his middle-class electorate on Clark's Snap Election Special Dinner menu. Ohariu-Belmont soup is described as an ever-changing interpretation of soup of the day.

Too much chopping and changing now and Mr Dunne could join the political corpses on trophy boards in the far corner of the pub, Sir Roger Douglas, David Lange, Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Jim Bolger, all of whom could do with a good dusting.

The Dunne party - we know little about the others - was a wholesome evening.

Middle-of-the-road families with children.

Few smokers. Finger food. And a bar tab - house wines only - for the party faithful.

And for entertainment? Helen Clark's puppet dressed up with streamers in the purple and green colours of United Future.

Could this be an omen? On election night and the following day at his 1930s two-storey home in Khandallah, Mr Dunne was not giving much away.

As you would expect, Mr Dunne, his teacher wife Jennifer and their two sons live in a very nice, not flashy, home at the top of Boxhill Rd. The home is close to the site of a redoubt built in the 1840s to protect a route through Khandallah and Johnsonville from the Ngati Toa chief Te Rauparaha.

The garden is neatly tended and there is new pine deck off the kitchen. The roses are pruned and pink and white camellias are in full bloom. It was too wet on election day to mow the lawns.

Inside, Mr Dunne is happy talking to the Herald in the formal lounge. He wears a brown woolly jumper, khaki trousers, brown lace-up shoes and sits on a chocolaty brown velvet sofa.

The china includes Royal Doulton and Wedgwood and there is a black-and-white print of Cathedral Square in Christchurch on one wall. A vase of red roses and irises sits on a solid mahogany box that doubles as a coffee table. The Historic Places Trust magazine is among the reading material.

Mrs Dunne is answering a barrage of telephone calls. You sense a nervy edge. At 11.15am Mrs Dunne interrupts and says "you had better take this call. It's Helen".

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