I want to bring about positive change in Labour.  Change to the way we look, change to how we work, and change in who we have been talking to and why. Our programme is one of significant modernisation and rejuvenation, which will be driven by our entire caucus. I have the skills, the vision, the plan and the Deputy to achieve this with you.

Here are the principles that would guide my leadership. First, our mission is to serve New Zealanders, not ourselves. Second, Labour must be true to its core values as a social democratic party. Third, we must rebuild a modern Labour Party together. Finally, we must create a winning team with integrity and purpose.

In order to achieve this we must earn the confidence of New Zealanders. We must reach out to communities we have lost touch with. The loss of votes in 2011 to other parties shows we need to rebuild our relationship with working Kiwi families, including middle income earners and small businesses. We must be clear that women, Maori, Pasifika and those most disadvantaged in New Zealand should also feel that Labour is their political home. Labour is the party that will work hardest in their interests. Right now these people don’t think it is, and many did not turn out to vote.

If elected as Leader, my first priority will be to reunite the caucus and to build a winning team. We will do this by taking a principled approach to our mission, empowering every member of the Caucus to give their best, allowing their talents to shine, and supporting them with modern, professional management systems and effective resources.

I will work in cooperative partnership with the broader Labour Party to modernise party and caucus structures and processes to best support a dynamic team fitted for victory in 2014. Expertise in and around Labour can assist us to build a capable political organisation that is the leading force in New Zealand politics. We must renew and rebuild our organisation from the ground up to ensure a strong presence throughout New Zealand, including in our provinces and rural New Zealand.

I will bring about a new era in Labour, one built on our founding values but also one that is more modern, agile and responsive to the New Zealand of today and tomorrow. I will lead a Labour Party that looks and feels like New Zealand, is true to our core values, that is reunified and rejuvenated and that will win the confidence of New Zealanders in 2014 to serve with purpose, integrity and passion.

I joined Labour in 1984 because our party is the primary force for progressive change in New Zealand.

I’ve spent my life working on inequality and fairness here in New Zealand and overseas.

When it comes to taking New Zealand forward and widening the net of opportunity, Kiwis have always looked to Labour, because Labour wants opportunities for you to make your life better tomorrow no matter where you live nor where you start.

But our success as a political movement hinges on our ability to build and retain deep connections with New Zealanders.

And if we are honest, we have to accept some of our connections to communities have frayed over time, and we need to renew them.

We need to act urgently to rebuild, and especially in places where New Zealand deserted us in huge numbers at the last election.

For our vision of renewal in New Zealand to be credible, we must be prepared to renew our party first – as we did when Helen Clark and David Lange led Labour back to government.

I want Labour to be a big tent, the voice of New Zealanders’ hopes and aspirations.

So we must offer our families and our communities a future full of potential, where they can achieve their hopes and dreams. I want our businesses to look to the Labour Party as the party that can best help them prosper.

Today an authoritative report was published showing the gap between New Zealand’s rich and poor has widened more than in any other developed country during the past 20 years.

It shows emphatically that increasing wealth doesn’t automatically trickle down, and so many of our young are locked into poor opportunities.

As the report showed, the most powerful tool to bring every New Zealander into the circle of opportunity is to give people skills, starting with children before they even start school and all the way through to work.

Opportunity for all is the immutable clause in Labour’s contract with New Zealand families.

We must not budge from this, and under my leadership we will not.

But I am asking your support to lead Labour because I will lead change and renewal.

I’ve worked in extreme pressure – sometimes life-threatening. I’ve built teams, led sensitive political negotiations in some of the world’s most dangerous places, and renewed  services like schools, hospitals and power stations with a multi-billion dollar budget.

And I will bring these skills to lead Labour back to Government.

For me this leadership contest is about putting together the team that can win the 2014 election. It is only through winning that election that we can put in place the programme that will see the Labour values of fairness, equality and opportunity for all become a reality.

In my time as a member of the Labour Party I have done everything from being a branch member to being an MP.  I have always tried to act in what I believe to be the best interests of the Party and the people we work so hard to represent.  It is in that spirit that I am putting my name forward as Deputy Leader in this contest.

While we face significant challenges as we acknowledge our defeat at this election, this is also an opportunity to rebuild our party, both inside and out, and to be an active participant in our communities.  I believe that our approach needs to be equal parts organisation and inspiration.

In terms of organisation I welcome the announced review of the Party.  Our core values endure, I believe we have a strong policy platform, but we must look afresh at all aspects of our organisation. Some specific issues we need to address are the recruitment and nurturing of talent, particularly women, in the party and the process for selecting candidates both in constituencies and on the list.

From this base, we move from organisation to inspiration. We must listen and connect or re-connect with a wide range of New Zealanders. We need to hit the road and hear from New Zealanders about their hopes, dreams and show them that Labour is on their side.

Our campaign must begin immediately.  The first steps are to enrol, engage and inspire the hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders who did not vote at this election.

In politics I believe there are two fundamental emotions, hope and fear.  There is much to be fearful of in the agenda of a visionless government that will see off our future and see the gap between rich and poor grow.

Where I believe Labour must do better is in inspiring New Zealanders. We must give them hope. Hope that we have the people and the plan that will support them in achieving their dreams, and look after them when they fail. Hope that we will make sure they get a fair go and that we will celebrate their success.

I believe I have the experience and political nous to make sure that our message is heard.  I know that I can hold my own and best any of the National frontbench in Parliament and on the hustings. I believe I can connect and empathise with the wider NZ public. I can help unite the Caucus around our vision of a New Zealand as a country where everyone, no matter who they are is given the chance to achieve their potential and play their part in our success as a nation.

Teenaa Koutou. Like many, I love Aotearoa and I am passionate about our people, our diverse communities, our cultural identity as a nation and our natural heritage.

I was raised in the small town of Huntly. During those early years the major source of employment were the coal-mines, the Huntly Power station, AFFCo freezing works and the Railways. Our community was hardworking and they suffered under the 1990s drive to privatize SOEs. That’s why towns like mine looked towards community led solutions and better educational opportunities to get ahead and make a living. I believe that a strong platform of investment in education, skills and training makes all the difference for many hard working families.

Our communities are diverse. We need to harness the creative energy of all our young people so that they can contribute to a thriving and vibrant new economy. Better paying jobs in new industries must be articulated in policies that optimize the potential of our young people, drive science and innovation, r&d investment and look towards our export potential.

Young people are thinking in a different space where the new economy is critically linked to better environmental stewardship. Green growth, renewable energy generation, alternative fuel, clean-tech solutions, and labour intensive green jobs are a natural range of policies for a progressive Labour movement. For Maori, the concept of kaitiakitanga is strongly felt and can be complimentary to this different way of doing things.

To say that New Zealand is a great place to live, inequality and child poverty must be tackled head on. It’s my strong view that we must look for new and dynamic solutions. The Labour model for growth and wealth creation is just as important as sharing prosperity through better paying jobs for our people. Getting people into good paying jobs lifts families out of dependency. We have to look for solutions that are more targeted and support families towards transformative change. That will mean a greater emphasis on front-end investment where the benefits will be gained over time rather than immediately. This will mean that the old guard of economic thinking must go. This means a strong emphasis on job rich, high skilled, high paid employment for everyone.

I fully support an organizational review which can energize a new wave of Labour membership to join our “party of ideas”, mobilize activism at a community and regional level, build organizational infrastructure to mount campaigns and attract funding support. It seems that this would be followed by a constitutional review to revisit that way “we do things” against expectations of what it takes to sustain a modern political organisation.

I want to make a contribution to a Labour leadership team to reset our compass, to move forward with energy, conviction and passion for the people we serve. The aspirations of Maori, Pacifika and Ethnic communities are at a critical juncture. The values of Labour assure us that there is space for diverse communities to see themselves reflected not only in the party, but really helping to steer the Labour waka in a purposeful direction where there is a clear choice for change where everyone benefits!

Kia Ora Nanaia.

I am about to put up a post from each of the contenders for leadership and deputy leadership of the Labour Party.

The posts will be in my name and will moderated by myself, Trevor, Chris Hipkins and Darien Fenton. Moderation will be tight.

I will flip a coin to determine the order in which each of the leadership contenders and deputies are posted.

The contenders will be invited to participate in comments on their posts.

Phil Goff and Annette King have announced their intention to resign as leader and deputy leader of the Labour Party in a fortnight.

At some stage I will do a considered post to thank them and to highlight what I think are unreasonable expectations we place on political leaders in New Zealand.

There will almost certainly be a contest for both the leadership and deputy leadership.

Like most people I have a view, albeit preliminary. It is not the view ascribed to me by a colleague who thought they were anonymous when they spoke to the media.

I will be discussing the issue with Hutt South party members next week. Others are welcome to comment here or email me direct.

This blog gives the wider public a chance to express their views. It will be tightly moderated so please do your best to avoid editing or deletion. Remember we don’t moderate what you say but how you say it matters to us.

Most Labour MPs will read this. We will look for reasoning that is fresh rather than just names or copied comments.