Just seen the TV1 report on the conference. Pretty positive, I thought although, as expected, a focus on the “admissions” of mistakes. While it’s not easy to admit these things, I think Phil and the team made the right call on this one. But there were many more messages which will resonate in the coming days and weeks. I felt good about Andrew Little’s speech and Phil and Annette’s today. I know they made the delegates feel good to be Labour and we’ve all left the conference reinvigorated and determined.
But for Labour activists, there was much more going on. The meat and drink for conference delegates are the remit workshops, the discussions, the debates and the ideas that are generated throughout the two and a half days of the Labour Party conference. This year’s remit workshops were packed and I was impressed with the quality of the debate. The thoughtful discussion papers leading into the remits is a new feature that focuses the party on the direction for the next ten years. .
An innovation that has appeared at Labour conferences in the last couple of years are the fringe meetings. Fringe topics this year included – Is New Zealand ready to become Republic?”; Young Labour and their campaigning in Mt Albert; A discussion on Open Source; Animal Welfare regulations in New Zealand; UnionAid and workers helping Burmese workers; and Union campaigns.
I went to Union Campaigns (as you would expect me to). We heard from migrant workers who are embroiled in the Telecom/Visionstream mess in Auckland; Hospital service workers told us about their 0% wage offer and asked for support; and the Dairy Workers Union outlined the developing situation at Open Country Cheese in the Waikato, where workers have been threatened with an extensive lockout because they dared to organise and ask their employer to meet industry norms in collective bargaining.
Outside of the fringe meetings, the informal contact during the breaks, the stalls, the debates over meals and the chance to catch up with old friends and wonderful supporters is what made the conference special.
This was a great Labour conference.
Pretty positive, I thought although, as expected, a focus on the “admissions” of mistakes.
You gave too much away with those quote marks. Nice to see you guys blogging raw from the conference. Good work.
I’m glad the conference went well.
Yeah I was a little dissapointed at the media’s focus on the saying sorry bit. I read an article on stuff and the whole thing was about two lines from Phil Goff’s speech. Completley missed the point of what he was trying to get across.
Ah well, I liked what I read here. Even though I wasn’t there I too feel energised and proud to be a Labour supporter.
The Union Campaigns fringe meeting showed a common theme.
When you listened to the union stories you could see that employers such as Telecom and Talleys feel confident to have a go at their workforce when they have a Government in power that is not just giving them a nod and a wink of support, but is actively intervening in the wider state sector to implement a wage freeze, such as that being imposed on cleaners in hospitals.
It is good to see the Labour Party and Labour MPs supporting these workers as I see from the comments of Bill English in the Sunday Star-Times that there will soon be thousands more angry workers joining their ranks fairly soon.
[...] MP Darien Fenton blogs on the fringe programme at Labour’s conference: An innovation that has appeared at Labour [...]
What some people may also not know about Labour’s conferences is that the Friday is spent in sector meetings, where the various groups who are party of the Labour Party – women, Pasifika, Maori. young Labour, Local Government, Union Affiliates, Ethnic, Rural (I’m sure to have missed one or two!) meet for the day to talk through their priorities, to discuss issues relevant to their sector and to plan activities and organisation. This provides a great basis for the discussion leading into the conference when everyone comes together in policy discussions.