From the New Zealand Herald.   A very brave choice, but absolutely the right choice. That has to be the verdict on the Labour caucus's election of David Shearer as the party's new leader.

Shearer may lack David Cunliffe's silky communication skills. He obviously lacks the depth of political experience that Cunliffe enjoys.

But the battle for the Labour leadership was not some recruitment exercise to fill a merely managerial role.

It was about picking a leader who could inspire; someone who - to use Shearer's term - could connect with the hundreds of thousands of voters in middle New Zealand who have switched off Labour.

In the end, Shearer had the one vital commodity that Cunliffe lacked. For all his intelligence, strategic thinking, skills and other attributes, Cunliffe could not offer his party the one thing Labour needs from its new leader more than anything else.

Cunliffe was not a fresh face. He was not the clean break from the past that Labour's rather desperate circumstances demand.

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