,,, Home alone BUMP.
,,, a bit of an update. Nice to see that someone's got some ambition.
Peter Dunne sees himself as the PM one day
10 October 2003
By VERNON SMALL
United Future leader Peter Dunne believes he could one day be prime minister of a centre-right government.
But in the meantime he is touting himself as the next deputy to Helen Clark, arguing he would be more acceptable than Green MPs in a centre-left cabinet.
"I venture to suggest that if United Future were to be a coalition partner, the prospect of myself as deputy PM would be much less alarming to the New Zealand and international community," he said in notes for a speech to the Diplomatic Club.
He contrasted that with a Labour-Green coalition which he said "could see Jeanette Fitzsimons as deputy PM and, on occasion, stand-in prime minister". He also raised the prospect of "anti-trade Rod Donald as minister of international trade and the dope smoker Nandor Tanczos as minister of justice".
Mr Dunne's comments were made as relations with Labour soured after United's refusal to support the Supreme Court Bill, its opposition to the Government's foreshore and seabed proposal and repeated attacks on Labour by United MPs. Prime Minister Helen Clark dismissed Mr Dunne's remarks. "Mr Schwarzenegger's victory in California has raised the expectations of many," she said.
Mr Dunne said he saw United, polling less than 3 per cent, as firmly in the centre of the political spectrum, keeping the big parties honest as they jostled to form a new government. He rubbished both of Labour's other potential partners.
"The Greens will retain their grip on the 7 per cent of New Zealanders who believe in worldwide conspiracies, who hate progress, loathe business and love drugs."
Economic Development Minister Jim Anderton's Progressives "will continue their inexorable slide into the dustbin of history, leaving Labour as the only consistent party of the centre-left as a serious player in the political marketplace", he said.
It was arguable the National Party was in terminal decline and its death could be imminent, he said. Cannibalising between ACT and National would harm both parties' chances of securing a majority in the House.
If National collapsed, its voters would have to choose between NZ First and United. "It is those sorts of calculations that lead me to the belief that I could one day be the prime minister of New Zealand."
ACT leader Richard Prebble scoffed at Mr Dunne's ambition. "Peter Dunne has more chance of being the next All Black captain than he does of ever being prime minister."