Govt previously refused Monaco appointment

A very significant development in the Owen Glenn story today, in Fran O’Sullivan’s column.

Readers will recall how the Owen Glenn said he had all but been promised Honorary Consul to Monaco, and he was just waiting for Winston to get off his arse about it.  Weknow Mike Williams lobbied Clark about it, and Glenn lobbied Peters and obviously he received no negative indications.

Now Fran reveals that the Government has refused to appoint an Honorary Consul repeated times in the last few years.  And not because the person suggested was inappropriate, but because they kept insisting there was no need for one. They even turned down a request which was backed by Monaco’s ruler, Prince Albert.

So after years and years of saying there is no need for a Consul, sugar daddy Owen Glenn says over breakfast he would like the role, and it seems people are falling over backwards to arrange it and give him the impression that it would be arranged.

This also suggest to me that Peters and Clark did not talk to Phil Goff about Glenn’s proposed appointment. Goff presumably would have said “you can’t appoint him – we have said on the record there is no need for a Consul”.  Or maybe they did talk to Goff and he is even more cunning that we’ve suspected.  Personally I don’t think he is that cunning, so hence assume they failed to talk to him.  They may have saved themselves a lot of trouble if they had.