Labour’s recently released party list is a job half-done.

A positive aspect is that it has introduced a small pool of new talent that would be beneficial to Labour’s ranks. However, it has also not only retained, but in some cases, promoted too many of the old guard that contributed so much to Labour’s failure when last in office. While the list ranking process has culled out some of Labour’s deadwood, it has not gone nearly far enough to suggest a future Labour-led government would look significantly different from the one that was so decisively defeated at the last election.

Current polling suggests Labour could win at least 40 to 42 seats at this year’s election. On the assumption Labour holds all its current electorate seats and wins up to 5 additional electorate seats, it could bring in up to 22 MPs from the party list. Yet of that potential 22 list MPs, only 6 would be newcomers to Parliament. And they rank well below many sitting MPs.

For example, controversial but impressive Police Superintendent Rakesh Naidoo – who seems certain to be elected – has been ranked well behind deadwood former Ministers Willie Jackson, Willow Jean Prime and Jan Tinetti, and veteran Megan Woods, who, while more capable, has only switched to the list because of doubts about the security of her heavily redrawn electorate in Christchurch. Yet there is little doubt that Naidoo is likely to make a greater contribution to Labour’s future than all that group ahead of him on the list combined.

Similarly, former School Strike 4 Climate NZ founder and co-ordinator, and possible but outside prospect to win the new Kapiti electorate, Sophie Handford has been ranked number 26 on the list. While she is still likely to be elected from this position, she sits below former Ministers Jo Luxton, Priyanca Radhakrishnan, and Damien O’Connor, whose best years look to be behind them.

Further down the list and on the cusp of being elected is Warrick Cleine, the current chair and chief executive officer of the international accounting firm KPMG, in Cambodia and Vietnam. His presence in the Labour Caucus would almost certainly bolster Labour’s economic credibility, alongside finance spokesperson, Barbara Edmonds. In a party heavily bereft of economic and business talent, he ought to have been much more highly ranked.

Former Fulbright Scholar and Stanford University graduate, Te Pūoho Kātene, sits a few places further down the list and will probably need to defeat Te Pāti Māori co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer in the Te Tai Hauāuru electorate to be sure of a place in Parliament. He would likely be a strong asset to Parliament, but thanks to Labour’s conservative and internally protective approach to list ranking, he may not get the chance.

Overall, Labour’s line-up still contains too many plodders in senior positions to suggest that a real process of renewal is underway within the party. The list ranking process should have been the opportunity to move aside those drains on Labour’s appeal in favour of talent likely to be the face of Labour over the decade ahead. It has failed to do so. While the plodders remain and dominate, the risk for Labour is that the new talent becomes frustrated, and gives up waiting, so chooses to pursue opportunities elsewhere.

This cautious and conservative approach is likely to also be reflected in Labour’s forthcoming policy announcements. The public transport fare cap policy ($20 a week in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and $10 a week elsewhere) announced this week is a good example. On the face of it, it sounds an attractive policy, although the devil will lie in the detail. Because its application will be limited it will hardly provide the “real cost-of-living relief” and “public transport system that works for everyone” that Labour claims. The fare cap is another job half-done, more a gesture than a major policy, and likely to be viewed by voters as such.

A feature of Labour’s announcements to date has been that they have not gone quite to plan. The capital gains tax policy was hurriedly announced last year after details had been leaked to the media; the list announcement was side-tracked about whether and when Naidoo had informed the Police leadership of his intentions, and earlier this week a Labour candidate almost pre-empted the fare cap policy announcement by suggesting a tax-relief policy announcement was imminent.

Given the modest nature of both its list and policy offerings to date, Labour can hardly afford to have its future announcements disrupted this way. To be taken seriously as a potential government-in-waiting, it first needs to look like one.

Presenting a party list that looks more like clinging to the relics of the past than facing the challenges of the future is unlikely to help to achieve that goal.