Dom Post on Goff and Peters

The Dom Post editorial calls on Phil Goff to choose principle over Peters:

As Winston Peters ponders the expense and bother of another tilt at Parliament, he will take heart from Labour leader Phil Goff’s equivocation on the subject of a post-election deal with the NZ First leader. Many voters will take a different view.

Mr Goff said yesterday that he had made no decision about a possible coalition with NZ First, but his other remarks were the verbal equivalent of throwing open the front door, handing Mr Peters the key to his liquor cabinet and inviting him to help himself to the whisky.

Heh, so true. And his line about how he won’t make a call until he knows if Winston makes it back is feeble – he made a call on Hone without knowing if Hone will be re-elected.

While Mr Goff has no doubts about Mr Peters’ reliability or trustworthiness, voters with longer memories do.

Mr Peters is, after all, the politician who railed against secretive big money donations to political parties then arranged for donations from wealthy backers to be funnelled to his party through a shadowy trust without the knowledge of fellow NZ First MPs or party officials.

He is also the politician who waved a sign saying “NO” in large letters when asked whether his party had received money from expatriate billionaire Owen Glenn, and who was subsequently found by the privileges committee to have “knowingly misled” Parliament over Mr Glenn’s $100,000 contribution towards his legal bills.

A verdict Labour to their shame voted against, despite evidence so strong it was well beyond reasonable doubt. Phone records shows Winston and Glenn on the phone, And around two minuites later Winston’s lawyer e-mailing Glenn asking him for money as discussed with his client a few minutes ago.

Mr Goff is desperate. He can feel the hot breath of ambitious colleagues on the back of his neck. However, it never pays to exhibit one’s desperation.

He would be better advised to put principle ahead of self-interest. Mr Peters’ unsavoury attacks on new immigrants and the politics of envy and fear he practises, are not compatible with Labour’s traditions.

This is what amazes me – Winston has spent his political career attacking Asians and immigrants, yet he is a hero to many on the left purely because he is also anti-National.

Prime Minister John Key has done the right thing by ruling out a deal with Mr Peters. Mr Goff should follow suit. It is not just parliamentary seats that are at stake but his credibility and judgment. There are times when leaders should forget political strategising and do the right thing. This is one of those times.

It won’t happen.