by Keith Stewart

The appearance of David Shearer at the top of the Parliamentary Labour Party is not as dramatic as that of David Lange in the early eighties, which, given the relative demeanour of the two leaders is hardly surprising. While Lange arrived like a bolt of retorical lightening in an all out assault on the bullying of Rob Muldoon, Shearer has come with a solid background of Good Work and quiet achievement.

He is, to many observers, the classic laconic Kiwi counterpunch to Prime Minister John Key's flash Harry salesman routine, but in the rush to compare him with our present leader is the real David Shearer missing an opportunity to identify himself with a Labour future that is different from that of the past? Different from its long term dancing partner, National?

Indeed, New Zealand's political story for the past thirty years has been about a dance in which the lead partner changes, but the dance, and the music, stays the same. Perhaps that is why so many voters turned off in election 2011 and avoided the polls.

Back in the seventies when Muldoon alienated the business community with a shift to central government authoritarianism that brought with it the old left leaning denizens that became Rob's Mob and his grip on power, Labour shifted right enough to gain votes in true blue seats like Rumuera. Lange and Douglas were briefly darlings of the bankers and wide boys of corporate New Zealand, and as the comfortable middle class enjoyed their dreams of material bliss and BMWs for all, they harvested votes like hay farmers in mid summer.

When Douglas lost support and Lange vaccilated, Bolger, Shipley and Co. renewed the New Right assault with even greater enthusiasm and less respect for what both National and Labour once considered the fundamentals of New Zealandness – a fair go for all and safety for the general public. Nine years of poor beating, Union flaying and international grovelling were need before Labour got another look in, but only when it showing that corporations were still cool and social justice came second to corporate greed.

The consequences of that period in our history we still live with – Pike River, leaky homes and the Rena disaster. And a reinvention of Labour under a new right that believed big business was fundamentally honest. Not even Ruth Richardson believed that, and ultimately Clarke's Labour lost credibility with a support base that thought it took the future of New Zealand seriously.

Goff was so much part of the right wing transition of Labour that he could never change enough to invite back the support his predecessors lost. So now we have Shearer. The big question is, will he be any different?

Many of us who yhave a soft spot for a party that lead the way in support for independent foreign policy, exit from apartheid freindships, ANZUS, Vietnam and nuclear risk taking, and the sort of creative hope that dissappeared when Norm Kirk died, have our fingers crossed.

But so far we have seen little more than actions that won't scare the horses. Spin, in short, and a seeming concern for neutral public opinion that offers even more of the same of the last few years. But it is early days, and tonight we might get a glimpse of what David Shearer means for the future of Labour, and, possibly, New Zealand.