Labour's new leader says he expects to be dumped if he doesn't deliver the goods before the next election in 2014.
David
Shearer was elected by the party's caucus on Tuesday to replace Phil
Goff, and his MPs are taking a gamble with an untested leader who hasn't
been in parliament for a full term.
He says he's going to travel the country talking to voters and knows he has to persuade them to put their confidence in him.
Mr Shearer also knows he has to at least make a dent in Prime Minister John Key's extraordinary popularity.
Asked
on Wednesday whether he expected to be dumped if he didn't do that, he
told Radio New Zealand: "If I'm not producing the goods I would expect
that to happen. It's up to me to produce the goods."
Mr Shearer entered Parliament in mid-2009 and hasn't made much of an impression in the debating chamber.
He
defeated David Cunliffe in the caucus vote because most MPs thought it
was better to have a leader who wasn't involved in previous Labour
governments and who can revive the party's appeal with a fresh approach.
Mr Shearer says he discovered some of the reasons for Labour's unpopularity during the election campaign.
"People
who were working really hard, holding down two jobs, working on
contract or self-employed ... they said Labour wasn't the party for
them," he said.
"We have to make it the party for them, we have to
talk about the things they're interested in, like getting ahead, they
have to know we're on their side."
NZN