Goff definitely made the right call
October 8th, 2010 at 10:00 am by David FarrarMartin Kay at the Dom Post reports:
Mr Carter revealed yesterday that he had offered to reconcile with Mr Goff in a joint press conference similar to that attempted by ACT leader Rodney Hide after Heather Roy was deposed as deputy.
“I reluctantly agreed two weeks ago to send Goff a message that I would do a Heather Roy-Rodney Hide-moment press conference, where I would admit to a moment of madness and he would admit to not giving me the support that he should have over the media beatup around travel, but we got the message back last Friday that [there would be] no reconciliation, no negotiation.
My God. Chris actually proposed a Rodney-Heather style press conference as something positive to be emulated?
And further he wanted Phil Goff to publicly apologise to him, for not defending him over his travel?
I can say without hestitation that if Phil Goff had agreed to this, his political career would be over.
If any staff member actually advised him to take up Chris’ offer of a reconciliation press conference where he apologises for being critical of Chris’ travel, then that is a sure sign that they are in fact a National Party plant in your office.
If any MP advised Phil to agree to the reconciliation press conference, then they are planning to become Leader in the near future.
What is interesting is that Carter’s sense of entitlement over the travel is what is really driving him, not the performance of Phil Goff.
Carter also gave an interview to gaynz.com, where again he said he was picked on for being gay.
“To have Phil Goff say it’s not homophobic – of course it’s homophobic. Why was I different to everybody else? Because I was the top spending MP? I wasn’t actually. Because I was the top spending minister? I was number four actually.
The Prime Minister, Foreign and Trade Ministers all have international travel as an integral part of their job. With other Ministers it is an occassional requirement.
I have to say, I was loyal to him a lot longer than he was loyal to me. Hanging me out to dry over that ministerial travel – he was one of the ministers that signed it off.”
This sounds like a fair point, but overlooks the reality of ministerial approval. Ministers are not treated like junior sales clerks, where their boss scrutinises travel applications and turns them down if not convinced. If a Minister decides to apply for overseas travel, they will almost inevitably have it approved. Ministers are expected to use their political judgement about whether their amount of travel can be perceived as excessive or extravagant. And in this area. chris did not show judgement – and still does not get it.
Carter questions why any concerns about the travel spending were not raised at the time, saying he believes there were no concerns. He says every trip has to be approved and if he had not gone another minister would have.
And it would have been better if others had gone.
The reality is that a Minister could find enough worthwhile conferences and seminars in their portfolio area that they could spent half their job overseas. And taken individually one could justify each and every trip. But what one should do is look at your total travel, and exercise judgement as to whether you are spending too much time overseas.
The proudly-gay MP, who has been the voice and face of gay New Zealand in Parliament for almost two decades, at least in the eyes of the mainstream and the media, has one lingering disappointment. Two weeks ago he received an invitation from the British Labour Party to come and speak at the Rainbow Network Fringe event in Manchester.
“I felt that I couldn’t go because of my estrangement from the Labour caucus. No other New Zealand Labour Party politician has ever been invited to speak at the British Labour Party Conference before.”
So his big regret is that he had to turn down another overseas trip! Incredible.
And without wanting to be a party pooper, there is a massive difference between being invited to speak to a British political party conference, and to a fringe event at the conference. I have been to the Conservative conference so this is from first hand experience. There are generally 80 – 150 fringe events at a party conference. It is not a huge thing to be invited to speak at a fringe event. At the risk of sounding immodest, I could probably arrange for myself to be a guest speaker at a fringe event at the Conservative conference. If I did, I would not of course have the NZ taxpayer pay for me to attend!
Carter says he has a personal connection to the area as his family emigrated from Preston, near Manchester.
“That’s been my greatest disappointment really, in this whole drama.
Not going to Manchester is his greatest disappointment? I really thinks words fail me.
Related posts:
- Editorials on Carter & Goff
- Carter ranked higher than Joyce
- Dom Post on Goff and Carter
- A nightmare for Goff
October 8th, 2010 at 10:06 am
Chris Carter is gay?????
Why did he never mention this before?
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 10:06 am
I am willing to pay for Chrissy Cater and his husband to relocate to Manchester or Preston just as long as it is a one way ticket and he promises never to return.
What a pathetic piece of human flesh he is.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Expect more of this nonsense. It is desensitising the public with each dribbling load of bullshit emitted from the idiot. It is getting harder and harder to maintain outrage in the public mind on this issue that has now dragged on for months.
Pretty soon it won’t even rate media attention and Chris can go on as before, undermining, white anting his party’s leadership and gnawing away at any semblence of respect that Phil Goff might attempt to generate.
And then folks, he has won!!
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 10:12 am
Cartier is deluded. (Not at all unlike Len brown it would seem.)
People have not deserted him because of the amount of travel, but because of his overweening sense of entitlement. It’s not the travel, but the massages Christopher. And your refusal to acknowledge that you have done anything wrong. Ever.
He cannot grasp that the rules also apply to him [a bit like the dinner in Sth Ak, Lenny.] He is an absolute narcissist.
The man believes that the world owes him a living – which, of course, is why he has always been a perfect fit for Labour.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 10:13 am
I’ll chip in to send him to any country under shria, he can report back on his altered understanding of what homophobia actually is.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 10:18 am
The ageing diva Chris(tine) Carter refuses to leave the stage, but (s)he will forced off.
Vote:What a shameful spectacle provided by the Labour comrades.
October 8th, 2010 at 10:23 am
I think Key should demonstrate he is not a homophobe like Labour Leader, Phil Goff and appoint Carter as the new GG.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 10:25 am
Something’s amiss with Chris. Doesn’t sound like two months was long enough to cure him. And while he carries on like this a cure for Labour seems to be a distant, forlorn hope.
Goff took on a near impossible task, and Carter keeps pushing that impossibility.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 10:27 am
Jesus Chuck I really don’t need the mental picture of Carter wearing a freaken tiara thanks.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 10:27 am
In addition to his excessive overseas travel for a Minister who’s portfolio was not an international one, he often also took his partner with him.
Has anyone compared how many times he took his partner with him at the expense of the taxpayer, compared with other Ministers? That would be interesting to know.
Also, his partner is a School Principal, so did his partner take leave during the school term (can Principals regularly do that?) or did he only accompany Carter during school holidays? If the latter, this begs the question whether Carter deliberately scheduled his trips to coincide with school holidays, which makes his travel even more likely to have been timed for his personal benefit rather than the taxpayers.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 10:30 am
And I thought I hated him because he was an unabashed trougher and useless pinko who never had a decent job in his life. Guess I AM homophobic.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 10:33 am
Now you know Brian. Feel bad and present yourself for reeducation.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 10:34 am
There’s another 100,000 people offended. Quick, get the PM to apologise. Wigan, Warrington, Stockport and Bolton are “near Manchester”, Preston is a city in Lancashire in it’s own right. Would you pick “near Manchester” to describe Liverpool? It’s about the same distance away…
FFS That’s weakest attempt at a justification that I’ve ever seen. Couldn’t you get Lancashire County Council to actually invite you to Preston then Chris?
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 10:44 am
Hmmm Preston. It is all starting to make much more sense. Very near to the Gay Capital of the UK. Blackpool.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Is it becoz I is Gay? Innit.
Same old same old. No-one cares about the sexual orientation. We simply resent being taken for fools and being stolen from.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 10:51 am
And right now, every other gay or lesbian MP is really really annoyed, I suspect, that Carter has made this about him being gay. Chris – the rest of us don’t give a flying fuck who you fuck, so long as we, the taxpayers, don’t pay for it! Got it yet?!
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 10:51 am
So feeble Phil has finally made one “right call”…he’ll make a party leader yet.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 10:59 am
The Nats must just love Chris Carter – he is like the gift that just keeps on giving…
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 11:02 am
One day he’ll be a real boy 3-coil.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 11:10 am
The term “homophobia” was coined in 1969 by Psychologist George Weinburg to describe a homosexuals self-loathing, or the loathing by others towards homosexuals because of their sexual orientation.
In 2010, a minority and apparently militant gay elite has determined that “homophobia” applies to anyone who has an alternative opinion to homosexuality aside from tolerance or unqualified approval.
This issue is not about sexual orientation – every MP called to account for credit card and other spending has enjoyed the scrutiny of public disclosure and rebuke.
Mr Carter is the only one responding to the scrutiny like a petulant child, and petulant children get smacked or sent to time out, with an appropriate loss of priviledges.
When even Carters own rainbow faction withdraw their support for him – then its game over.
The man disgusts me, not because he is gay – but because he holds office in the highest Court in the land, and he should be standing in the dock as the accused, and taking his punishment in a dignified and considered manner as his office would expect – not flailing about like a kid who has just crapped his pants and is now flinging the contents over everyone else.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 11:15 am
It’s about time Uncle Helen started giving Chris some good advice.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 11:20 am
I looked up “hetrophobe” Letterman. There was just a picture of Chris Carter.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 11:21 am
Nick R (44) Says:
October 8th, 2010 at 10:59 am
The Nats must just love Chris Carter – he is like the gift that just keeps on giving…
and giving and giving lol
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 11:24 am
We blogged this on 10 August last year:
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 11:26 am
Damn….I am running out of popcorn.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 11:32 am
Bulk buy lofty, election season is coming and I’m going to be peeing in a bottle at this rate.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Carter just keeps on giving .. he will be greatly missed
Vote:BUT, where will he pop up next I wonder
October 8th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
As I have noted elsewhere it is the fact that he acts like a dick, not what he does with other people’s, that gets him in trouble.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
he did mention he was interested in something on the environmental side .. he may become the face of Greenpeace
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
@ jaba – I doubt that even Greenpeace would want Chris Carter as its public face
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
@Inventory2: I thought Greenpeace were keen on recycling rubbish. Just too toxic, I guess?
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Grates me to the bone, that this pathetic excuse for a human being (let alone a man), has made and passed laws that you and I are forced to live under.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
He can go and be cabin boy on the new boat that Pete Buffoon want to get…
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Good post David.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Carter is doing nothing for gays in his performance as an MP. Indeed he is reinforcing all the old stereotypes about gays. He has been a standard bearer for gay politics and has opened doors for gays in public life. But he could have been much much more and left parliament with a whole clutch of gongs and awards. His narcissistic behavior, his contempt for taxpayers and using his sexuality as an excuse for his weak feeble behavior means he will leave Parliament as a failure. No gongs, no respect, a loser.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
So, joining the dots a little here. He was invited to go speak at a conference which celebrates his fringe lifestyle, but he felt he was unable to go because he didn’t think it would be right to dip into the taxpayer pocket (again) to fund the trip. Does the *man* not have money of his own? Surely if it was that important to him, he could have paid for it himself? I mean, he could hardly claim it is a trip related to his work as the constituent MP for Te Atatu.
He clearly has a terminal case of entitle-itis, and it is highly unlikely that once he leaves the Parliament he will be able to survive unless he secures alternative employment that enables him to sup from the taxpayer trough.
He is reviled and ridiculed not because he is a mincing queen, but because he is a troughing scumbag (and being Uncle Helen’s favourite boy only makes it worse).
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Offshore_Kiwi, yep, stay offshore, the sense of entitlement is so ingrained in the Kiwi psych the only thing that will shift it is when NZ goes bust. Watch this space.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
Muzz, I’ve been serving a sentence in the Socialist People’s Republic of Melbourne for the past 7 years, and I’m pretty desperate for parole. It’s only a matter of time before Joolya does to Oz what Uncle did to New Zealand.
I missed the worst excesses of Uncle’s corrupt dictatorship, but I understand if I come home I’ll be coming back to a broken country. Mebbe in between working to make a living for my family (and the 1.7 troughing bludging bennies I’d have to support), I’ll join a Tea Party.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
Offshore_Kiwi no hope of a Tea Party in NZ, those that aren’t snout in trough are too apathetic to do anything. Stay in Melbourne mate. I return to the Philippines on Oct 20, done my rotation of looking after my Dad.
Vote:October 8th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
Perhaps the Dear One can get Chrissy a job at the UN. God knows they could do with another gay progressive twit with an over inflated sense of entitlement.
Vote: