Te Atatu LEC expresses no confidence in Goff
December 6th, 2010 at 10:00 am by David FarrarA fascinating letter turned up in the post the other day. It was a copy of a letter from the Labour Party’s Te Atatu Electorate Committee (LEC) to Party President Andrew Little.
The letter has the unanimous support of the LEC and expresses their “disgust” at the way Chris Carter was treated by Labour.
It is to be expected that they are supportive of their former MP, but what is exceptional about the letter is the explicit statement of no confidence in Phil Goff.
They specifically state Goff’s leadership is uninspiring, and that they are concerned about his policy flip-flops. They attack him for his attacks on Helen Clark’s legacy and say he is betraying the legacy of a popular and successful Labour Government.
They go on to say that they have been expressing these concerns over Goff’s leadership for many months, including to their area representative.
Now remember that this is a letter agreed to unanimously by the LEC. It shows that this is not just an issue about Carter’s travel, but that there is serious discontent with Goff’s leadership in this solid red electorate.
In National over the years I’ve seen electorates get unhappy over various issues and write to the Board about them. I’ve never seen an electorate committee use the harshness of language about the leader, that the Te Atatu LEC is using – its is unprecedented.
The letter is below. You can click twice on each page to see them full size.
I found the references to Goff betraying Helen Clark’s legacy especially interesting – they indicate to me that the Clark loyalists will roll Goff straight after the 2011 election, unless he wins.
Related posts:
- Lining up for Te Atatu
- Carter only nomination for Te Atatu
- Carter still only nominee for Te Atatu
- The Te Atatu selection
December 6th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Take out a one page ad in The NZ Herald and publish this. It would be worth it just to see the shrill of the Left.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 10:28 am
Strong signs that even if it did surface a fresh new Labour may struggle within, and without a poll recovery. Continued wallowing in “the good ol’ days” could be a 10% burden.
One of the future options, that Goff has nodded at and candidate selections scream, is the Labour/Union alliance. That’s also backward looking.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 10:28 am
I find (4) particularly interesting in its display of offence at Goff admitting mistakes were made. Hubris much?
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 10:28 am
I’m with Gwilly. How much would such an advert cost, and should we do a whip round to raise the money?
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Isn’t the Te Atatu LEC controlled by Carter’s girlfriend?
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 10:31 am
I like the bit of the letter that criticises Goff for attacking “Helen Clark’s legacy” by explaining that Goff has said the last government made “mistakes”. Are there really people who think that Helen Clark made no/zero/zip mistakes in nine years? Do they live in some sort of Helen Clark reality-denial bubble where everything is perfect?
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Clarks government was popular and successful????? Good god.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 10:44 am
I personally think it is great that Labour is lead by such a twit. Not on is the party bereft of any value-the leadership is in tatters. We should all sleep easy at night. Now we just need to expose the Greens for the nasty little commies they are and we will have knocked off the entire axis of evil in NZ.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 10:48 am
LOL what a joke, yes this is the same LEC that Carter’s partner happens to chair, and no surprises there.
Further proof that Labour is undergoing a faction war, and probably will for most of next year as well. Goff needs to mobilise the centre, and destory the radical left-leaning influences once and for all.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Probably won’t need to take out advert – MSM will pinch the story of DPF.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 10:57 am
One disingenuous point, that Carter learnt from the media about his expulsion.
However, Carter himself made himself non-contactable.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 11:00 am
So Chris’ “husband” and their mates are very very upset, and are continuing their catty little vendetta.
I loved the bit about Chris being a “man of action” we always thought he was a little too keen on overseas “action” …
and of course charging a wealthy chinese businessman $20k for dinner never involved an expectation of reciprocal favours did it – and Labour went after Pansy Wong for $500 bucks. Hmmm.
but at least he “never rested in our electorate” was that because he was too busy jetsetting around the world to sleep at home?
This guy is really the gift that keeps on giving, i have beer and popcorn. Best show in town, When Queens go Wild.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 11:09 am
I don’t know what makes me more happy.
That fact Goff is staying on as leader, or, if he doesn’t, the intellectual giants who wrote the letter will play a part in selecting his replacement.
They think that the last Labour government was popular and didn’t make mistakes?!? That will be why they are still in government, then.
Full-scale religious nuttery.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 11:10 am
SHADY…….”# shady (128) Says:
December 6th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Probably won’t need to take out advert – MSM will pinch the story of DPF.”
You are joking, surely, they have probably been covering it up for a week.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 11:22 am
Backster – more than likely, but once DPF or Whaleoil reveal a story – they will then release it as a news.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 11:31 am
If someone was prepared to pay $20,000 to have dinner with Chris Carter, how much would they have paid to not have dinner with him?
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
The Clark loyalists sit in the background still running the show. The party knows they are bad for re-election but all todays frontpeople scurry off to get anything approved by them. It’s sscary asnd dysfunctional. Shadow women.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
The Chinese businessman was trying to climb the greasy pole.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Its on stuff now. Well done DPF.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4427385/Te-Atatu-electorate-committee-attacks-Goff
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
A couple of questions:
1. Was the $20,000 dinner with the wealthy Chinese businessman declared? Was he a foreigner or were they using the term “Chinese” in the same way that Paul Henry would use “Indian”? The Clark government was caught up in a bribe taking scandal involving overseas residents, secret donations, and the promise of an overseas consulship. Is this similar?
2. They mention a Labour Party owned electorate office. Presumably parliamentary services pay for this, in which case they’re helping fund the Labour Party via the rent. Can we be sure that the rent is genuinely market based? If it is, then why is there any point to Labour dabbling in the real estate investment market only for electorate offices, as opposed to any other form of real estate investment?
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
@DavidP
Assuming the “Wealthy Chinese businessman” was one of the two owners of “Sunshine World International Limited” then yes it was declared.
http://www.elections.org.nz/files/labour_2008_don_ret_supp_info.pdf
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Go Stuff for plagerisation DPF.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Backster/Herman Poole – I find that really interesting – particularly in regard to Backsters comment regarding the media covering it up for the past week. Makes you wonder just how much they cover up of lefty misdeads – unless the bloggershpere gets hold of it. Seems to be happening frequently of late.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
DPF scoops the MSM again, and again, the MSM doesn’t have the decency to acknowledge him. Now we all know what Fairfax journalists do on a Monday morning; visit the blogs.
[DPF: They mention Kiwiblog in the story, so no probs with acknowledgement. And I didn't do anything too special here - I was lucky to be picked as the recepient.]
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Per anonymouse’s link, it is interesting to see a $10,587 donation from Helen Clark, two weeks after the election. At least she wasn’t charged the full $20,000 for dinner.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Stuff has acknowledged the source.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
After some mild promting i’m sure they have.
Its not “journalism” to sit on a story and then cut n past from a blog you idle tossers.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Kiwileaks strikes again.
Media wouldn’t sit on something like this and then attribute to someone else.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
It’s true that Goff is rubbishing Clark’s legacy. Why, just last night I saw a Labour party poster calling for more and better jobs…
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
@ DPF – you’re not “lucky” to be selected as the recipient; people now know where to leak things now, so that they don’t get buried.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
If someone was prepared to pay $20,000 to have dinner with Chris Carter, how much would they have paid to not have dinner with him?
It could have been one of those Bidrivals-style auctions, where the second best bid has to pay up too, even though they lost out.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
I say stick up for Goff. He’s pure gold for National.
Notice Key never goes on the attack. He sees a value-for-money benefit better than most of us.
On the other hand, just think of the entertainment potential of a newcomer doing an Ed Milliband nose dive!
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
The love that Labour have for the corrupt Klark is always going to be a good enough reason for me to fight against NZ ever becoming a republic.
Make no mistake, it will be a Labour government who decides to make NZ a republic and you just know they will make Klark the first president of New Zealand.
We (the public) will have no say in the matter.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Good solid Labour people. I do find it strange they have not been formally advised of the expulsion nor Carter himself advised. It seems they have pull their weight as an organisation including funding issues.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
thats because they are, oh yes LYING tvb
Carter RAN AWAY from the Council and refused to take calls from them, this is why he can now claim, hand on heart, that they didnt even have the decency to tell him personally that he had been expelled – and that he, poor maligned love that he is, found out through the media.
Oh, the humanity!
incidentally, did you know that he was only being persecuted because he was gay? what’s that you say, gay? never? who knew, we all just thought he was highly strung…
I love the line about ‘good solid labour people’ though, i always thought that labour was about workers. How sordid and last century of me, pass the chardonnay love.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
That’s one of the weakest unsubstantiated scare tactics against becoming an independent country, and it keeps being repeated as if it has some chance of happening. We haven’t even begun to consider how a republic might be structured and who would be eligible to be president if such a post was set up.
One thing’s almost certain though – if we did have a president they would be selected far more democratically than our current head of state.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Pete George (8,189) Says:
“We haven’t even begun to consider how a republic might be structured and who would be eligible to be president if such a post was set up. ”
so the answer is yes then….?
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
davidp asks:
You don’t read The Standard do you?
Broadly speaking, there seem to be two groups: the first keeps a 10 x 8 signed (presumably airbrushed) pic of Dear Leader by their bed and sit round, like the rump of communists left in Russia, saying “Yes, we have enough bread now, but still, when Uncle Joe was in charge we didn’t have to make all these decisions. It was a simpler, better time, and this Putin, he is so weak…”; the second echoes that famous Tom Scott cartoon of Lange saying “If I ever find out who was PM for the past four years, they’re going to get an earful from me…”
I suppose it’s some sort of compliment to the woman that right wingers will come here and rant about Key while he’s in power while Clark’s legacy remains inviolable to the left. But it does make one wonder the extent to which Sandy above is right in saying:
Either the bulk of the left genuinely believe Clark was both omniscient and saintly, or the organisation has been left so riddled with people who do believe that and are in positions of considerable power that any critique of the last Labour government spells the death knell to one’s political hopes.
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
This missive is very interesting. The sisterhood (of which these Te Atatu LEC functionaries are firmly part of) still have considerable power in the Party especially in the non Parliamentary party organization and a good chunk of caucus. Carter was right about the disgruntled 17 – its just that those in the group more politically savvy than Carter knew there was no favoured candidate of the left around whom they could coalese that has enough experience to lead the party to victory. They’d love Robertson to be the leader but he’s too new. All the other contenders could not count on a solid enough block of the right to support them nor are they able to pick off enough from the left/sisterhood to back their candidacy. So even though disquiet about Goff’s performance is reasonably widespread, there is an unspoken understanding that Key in 2011 will be very tough to beat and Goff will be the sacrificial lamb to pave the way for a Little or a Cunliffe or even a Robertson. If National or Key manage some unforced own goal or the Maori Party kiss and make up with Labour then the thinking is that if Goff can survive all this crap and miraculously win in 2011, then he deserves to lead the party.
Carter’s ham handed attempt at a coup (mostly revenge against Goff for publicly humiliating him) has now left Labour with an aweful PR nightmare that is a gift that keeps on giving. This letter will be followed by Carter’s inevitable kiss and tell almost all book. Goff must be thinking the same as Henry II: “who will rid me of this turbulent priest”!
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
Another pointer towards Goff’s transparent lack of administerial ability. Surely, if a Labour electorate’s MP is sacked, expelled, dismissed or whatever, etc. from the Party by the Party Leader – the very LEAST that should have been expected by the Labour Electorate Committee was a communication from the Party Leader with full explanation as to the circumstances, and his justification for effecting the deed.
And … no such communication was ever made?
Did Goff forget the dictates of administrative protocols?
If he did – well then, what about the dictates of ordinary polite conduct … or is there really nothing at all left of that in parliamentary Labour circles?
Why am I not remotely surprised?
Vote:December 6th, 2010 at 8:18 pm
Either the bulk of the left genuinely believe Clark was both omniscient and saintly, or the organisation has been left so riddled with people who do believe that and are in positions of considerable power that any critique of the last Labour government spells the death knell to one’s political hopes.
Same syncopathic loyalty as was displayed towards Micheal Joesph Savage. Photos on the wall in every Labour house stuff.
MJ Savage was an arsehole as well. Tyranny of Labour Leaders. (oh and the odd National one as well. Muldoon comes to mind.)
Vote: