The man for whom the worm turned up trumps

By BERNARD ORSMAN

The greying Peter Dunne has made a career out of being sensibly dull.

With four parties in the past eight years, the 48-year-old MP for Ohariu-Belmont has remained buried in the centre-ground of New Zealand politics.

Until Monday. In the space of 90 minutes on a Holmes leaders' debate, Mr Dunne wooed the worm with a performance that blitzed the political heavyweights, including Labour leader Helen Clark and National leader Bill English.

The electronic worm, representing the views of 100 undecided voters, went skyward every time Mr Dunne gave a commonsense answer on a key issue: tougher sentences for criminals balanced with an attack on the causes of crime; integrating public and private health systems to provide the best in health care.

Middle-of-the-road messages which Mr Dunne has been preaching for years but without an audience.

Now that Mr Dunne is in the headlines there is a strong likelihood his United Future party will scoop up enough party votes to get a second MP into Parliament. That person would be Gordon Copeland, the financial administrator of the Catholic archdiocese in Wellington.

Today's Herald-DigiPoll has United Future on 1.1 per cent, tantalisingly close to the 1.2 per cent needed for a second MP if Mr Dunne holds the Wellington seat of Ohariu-Belmont. The poll was taken before Mr Dunne's television victory.

The normally underwhelmed Mr Dunne was overwhelmed yesterday at the reaction to his winning display. But he also felt frustrated that it had taken eight years in the political wilderness to get the message across. Another televised opportunity comes on Friday when Mr Dunne is to appear on a second Holmes debate for minor party leaders - without the worm.

"I certainly feel this [the worm debate] has been the opportunity but I'm a wee bit taken aback by the level of reaction of 'why haven't we heard this before?'.

"It has been there. It just hasn't got out."

Over the remaining 10 days of the campaign Mr Dunne will do his best to push the message of United Future as a family-centred, commonsense party, one that will be in Parliament and in a position to have a say.

Mr Dunne left the Labour Party in October 1994 to make a pitch for the votes of the "forgotten" middle-class.

A short time later he formed Future New Zealand. Delivered to each parliamentary office was a bag of purple, green and white lollies - Future New Zealand's colours. The party was dismissed as the lollipop and jellybean party.

In June 1995, Mr Dunne merged Future New Zealand with the new United Party and became one of its seven MPs.

When United went into coalition with National in 1996, Mr Dunne was appointed Minister of Inland Revenue and Internal Affairs.

Of the six MPs who went into the election for United in 1996, Mr Dunne was the sole survivor. That party became an amalgam of minnows by incorporating the Ethnic Minority Party, Advance NZ and the Conservative Party (formerly ROC). United scored 0.54 per cent of the party vote in 1999.

In November 2000, Mr Dunne hitched his United Party with the pro-family, Christian-based Future New Zealand Party to create United Future New Zealand and "herald a new start in New Zealand politics".

Future New Zealand had a similar chequered history. Former National MP Graeme Lee formed its predecessor, the Christian Democrats Party, in May 1995 and went into coalition with Graham Capill's Christian Heritage Party to fight the 1996 election under the Christian Coalition banner.

The coalition scored 4.3 per cent of the party vote - close to the 5 per cent threshold for seats in Parliament. However, the coalition proved to be a sham and a bitter divorce followed in 1999 when the Christian Democrats shed the Christian name in favour of Future New Zealand.

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