When friend becomes foe

A party built in opposition has staged a rapid and nasty unravelling under the weight of power, writes AUDREY YOUNG.

It was during the Auckland mayoral campaign last year that Alliance president Matt McCarten first realised something was wrong between him and Jim Anderton.

He detected a pinch of doubt in Anderton's trust in him which had been implicit.

Anderton visited McCarten at HQ in Grey Lynn to tell him his campaign was seen as too personal, that perhaps he was promoting himself ahead of the party.

That was in September.

It has been a rapid decline. By November, the tensions had become public.

They were at it again this week, the leader and his president, sniping past each other, outbidding the other for who has been the hardest done-by.

It seems all the more senseless because it is difficult to pin down exactly what the trouble is.

To borrow from Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges' writing about another war, it has the look of "two bald men fighting over a comb".

If it looks bad from the outside, take a glimpse from the inside.

What follows is a shell-shocked account of an Alliance meeting last month written by an Alliance member. It was e-mailed to members of "Staunch" - the student wing of the Alliance.

" ... A meeting organised by the Wellington Regional Alliance last night ended in tears, recrimination and a stunned disbelief as deputy leader Sandra Lee stormed out of the hall after a shouting match with president Matt McCarten and former Alliance employees. Order in the meeting broke down after Lee claimed the Alliance was 'probably terminal' and accused office staff of withholding membership lists, as a former party worker shouted his denial. Lee then said the party president was accusing her of an inability to do her job, which he denied, replying that he was merely calling her 'a liar'. At this stage the meeting broke up as amongst scenes of borderline hysteria a weeping middle-aged women screamed at the stunned onlookers that we were all 'f***wits'. I approached the front table where a swearing match between Lee and McCarten had broken out. Confused members were standing around in shock and disbelief ... it was surreal, it was out of control, and it was the most bizarre thing I have seen in 15 years of political involvement ... I can't think of any other description but that of a family tearing itself apart."

Traumatised Alliance members will be put out of their misery after Easter, when Anderton is expected to announce he will stand under another banner next election.

How has it come to this?

Anderton has lost trust in McCarten. Neither would dispute that. The reason for the mistrust is manifold and subject to disagreement.

The demise of the Alliance was predicted from the day it began in 1991 because it comprised so many component parties: Anderton's hardline NewLabour, , the Democrats (former Social Crediters and Anderton loyalists), the Greens (who left to go solo), Mana Motuhake (McCarten loyalists) and later the Liberals (defunct).

But the differences between parties has not been the problem. The breaking point has been forced because of intra-party splits, namely in NewLabour, which now pits former comrades Anderton and Matt Robson against McCarten and Laila Harre.

One of the problems is resentment over the role of the Alliance's coalition manager Dr Andrew Ladley.

Ladley has the powerful job of discussing with Labour's policy mandarin, Heather Simpson, what's in and out.

Ladley, a gently-spoken constitutional law lecturer, has been advising Anderton since 1988 when he took on the Labour caucus over asset sales and economic reforms.

With Ladley's advice, Anderton formed NewLabour in 1989, and took it into the Alliance in 1991.

Through the 90s, McCarten was Anderton's pillar. Ladley was an occasional player. The roles changed when Anderton became Deputy Prime Minister in 1999. McCarten suddenly had to compete for influence and access to the leader.

He was expected to raise money and build the party but leave politics to the politicians.

Anderton's new trusted and powerful adviser was someone whose loyalty had primarily been to the person, not the party.

Democrats leader and Alliance whip Grant Gillon claimed on television that McCarten had wanted Ladley's job.

McCarten told the Herald he never wanted the "micro" coalition job. He wanted the "macro" management committee - of party and parliamentary leaders - functioning properly. It met only once.

But Ladley's influence over Anderton and policy progress in the coalition has clearly been a major source of resentment in the McCarten camp.

"Jim has been very busy," said McCarten. "Andrew has taken more of a strategic and political role but he has no political background or any history. He is not even a member of the party."

The implication is that Ladley has not been tough enough with Simpson.

"Andrew has an aversion to upsetting anyone. He wants to be liked. That's a bad combination in a negotiator," said McCarten. "A person like me comes from a trade union background. You have clear objectives of what you want to achieve. And conflict is not bad. Conflict identifies issues that you need to resolve."

That is precisely the sort of talk Anderton calls oppositionist attitudes in the party.

His theory is that the party will be repaid for being a constructive coalition partner, with a few major policy gains such as Kiwibank and paid parental leave.

The party's left could not accept a passive response to falling polls. It wanted a stronger identity through greater differentiation from Labour.

For that, Anderton reads greater conflict.

This left Anderton feeling unsupported by elements of his own party. Within the past few months that accusation had hardened to being "undermined".

At the lower end, it amounted to irritating emails among members complaining that its MPs were behaving like lapdogs to Labour.

At the top of the scale, it is a full-blown conspiracy theory. There is a strong belief in the Anderton camp that McCarten's goal was to replace Anderton with Harre, or even himself, at the first conference following the election (Alliance leaders are elected by conference).

The undercurrents over leadership and the succession have played a major part in destroying trust in the party.

The Mana Motuhake leadership coup last June in which Willie Jackson rolled Sandra Lee triggered fears. McCarten is thought to have encouraged it behind the scenes, although Lee's distractions from her Maori party sealed her fate.

Lee, also the Alliance deputy, had talked about standing down this election. It was an open secret that the left wanted Harre to replace her. It was mistakenly thought that in losing the Mana Motuhake leadership, Lee might hasten her decision to retire and vacate the deputy's post.

"Jim got very antsy about that because it didn't have his approval," said McCarten.

The Harre option was explored because Lee had been vacillating about her plans. With her and Anderton likely to retire by 2005, he had an obligation to be thinking about succession.

The Lee camp believes Harre was spooked by Anderton's opposition. She decided not to challenge at last year's conference.

The left insists it wanted Harre as deputy to have a stronger influence in policy implementation and to succeed Anderton, probably in about three years. It vows it never planned to roll Anderton.

Convinced? They are simply not believed by the Anderton camp. And in a sense, it does not matter whether it is true or not. What matters is they are not trusted by Anderton. Everything is viewed in terms of the conspiracy plan.

Even when the party engaged in its mother of battles over MPs' support for the war in Afghanistan, the left was cynically dismissed by the Andertonists as insincere, and promoting an issue to discredit the MPs. If it wasn't Afghanistan, it would have been something else, it was always said.

That forces greater than them all may be at work, is not given much of a look.

The Green Party in Germany, for example, in coalition government, also under MMP, is having uncannily similar problems to the Alliance over identity - and Afghanistan.

The party has slumped below the 5 per cent threshold for winning MPs after more than three years in the coalition Government.

Anderton's Alliance has as well. From its 7.7 per cent in 1999 and 10 MPs, current polling would give it two or three MPs at most.

Laila Harre was 6th on the list last time and McCarten did not stand, though he is likely to this time.

Anderton referred this week to "panicking over the list," a clear reference to the left's fear that Harre won't make it back. The list-ranking process created strains not evident under first-past-the-post.

"The best election the Alliance ever fought was in 1993," Anderton said. It was its first general election, it was first-past-the-post and it made 18 per cent.

"As soon as the list came along in 1996 [with MMP] the truth is that everyone saw the place they had on the list as being their passport into Parliament."

In pursuit of electoral strength Anderton last year wanted McCarten to concentrate on organising Auckland properly. But at that time McCarten, without consulting Anderton who was out of the country, hastily decided to contest the Auckland mayoralty for the Alliance. He polled a creditable 15 per cent, and later publicly talked about standing in Auckland Central.

"It was put to me by Jim that Sandra may not stand. If that is the case, that would be a good seat for me to run in."

Both moves reinforced the conspiracy theory and doubts about McCarten's ambitions. It was in the midst of the mayoralty campaign, McCarten realised something was wrong in the relationship, and that Anderton's trust in him was being questioned.

Anderton came to see him to tell him McCarten's campaign was being perceived by others as too personal and not oriented enough to the Alliance party.

"He said, 'People are saying you are putting yourself first before the Alliance'."

McCarten said he told Anderton surely he knew that was not his intention.

"He said, 'I know, that's never been like you before but I don't know any more.'

"At that point I wished I'd never run as mayor."

Anderton and McCarten had first met in 1988 one stormy night at the home of Matt Robson, now the Corrections Minister. McCarten, a union don of his day, wanted to help Anderton to take on the Labour presidency. They lost.

But they established a partnership forged in defeat and then years of opposition.

It is success that has proved too difficult a test.