Stories on Hughes and Goff
March 27th, 2011 at 9:56 am by David FarrarSo many stories, I’ll try and cover them in the one post.
In one story, David Fisher in the HoS writes of how Andrew Little and Phil Goff have still not discussed the Hughes affair. Amazing.
David Fisher in Herald on Sunday writes in a second story on previous allegations (one of which was blogged on Whale Oil around a year ago), and on the fact that Goff knew for longer than he initially said (again a point Whale has made). Fisher also reports that Tizard says it would be nice to be an MP again so she can say “stick it up you” to those who didn’t want her back (which is most of the Labour Caucus and none of the National Caucus).
Matt McCarten writes in the HoS:
Why is the Labour opposition so hopeless? I had assumed that leader Phil Goff was competent enough, albeit lacking in charisma, to survive until the November election.
Now I don’t. His performance this week has been appalling.
Ouch. And more:
The handling of the Darren Hughes incident exposes Goff’s hypocrisy, his lack of judgment and, more importantly, his political smarts. You couldn’t get a more inept management of a crisis.
It was always a long shot for Labour to win November’s election, given the dismal polling of the party and their leader.
Goff’s mismanagement this week has taken any chance now.
McCarten concludes by saying Goff has to go. Ironically this will probably make Goff safer as Labour MPs won’t like being seen to do what McCarten says!
Jonathan Marshall in the SST has an interview with the 18 year old’s mother in this story. And in another story, Georgina Beyer and Chris Carter both say Goff should go. Again, this may help Goff 
March 27th, 2011 at 10:10 am
Paul Holmes on Q+A – appalling interview of Goff, he needs a longer holiday.
Goff stuck to a carefully prepared line – he wanted to protect the police inquiry from the glare of publicity. Fair enough.
But lack of preparedness, shifting position and the resulting mess is a reflection of his lack of leadership ability. And the fact that he insists it’s only a caucus problem and not a party problem, hence excluding Little, is astonishing. That suggests deeper problems in Labour.
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 10:16 am
It appears that the whole parliamentary Labour organisation is in meltdown. This is amazing stuff. I can’t wait for November… It will be so delightful to live in a country where John Key and his band of hopeless borrowers and traitorous separatists rule the country completely unapposed.
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 10:26 am
The ginga continues to deny it despite evidence to the contrary.
More Hughes allegations
The Herald on Sunday has learned of claims about Hughes and a worker from a party leader’s office who were in a group drinking at a 2009 Christmas party.
The staffer is understood to have been asked by Hughes to carry on drinking, and was then the subject of a sexual approach. The young man objected and left.
The party leader quizzed the young man to see if he wanted to make a formal complaint. He declined, saying the incident was a misguided “pass”.
The revelations about the second set of allegations come as a friend of Hughes argued Labour bosses should have protected Hughes from his partying lifestyle.
The friend said Hughes had not had support in key personal areas and had been left to make poor choices. “Darren just really needs to be clear about the choices he made.”
The Herald on Sunday was also told that a Labour MP confronted Hughes after questions were raised about his interaction with one of his staff in 2008.
A witness said Hughes was told to take responsibility for his sexuality to which he responded saying: “I’m not gay.”
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 10:29 am
Does Johnathan Marshall have no shame? He interviews the complainant’s mother and basically outs the complainant in the final paragraph.
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 10:30 am
Hughes is definitely a rock, specially when surrounded by male teenagers.
“Darren Hughes is a rock,” according to family spokesman and uncle, prominent Levin businessman Davey Hughes.
Hughes said the family was amazed by the former MP’s strength of character at such a stressful time.
“We admire him so much. The support from people here in his electorate has been overwhelming.”
He said his nephew was in a difficult spot and was likely to to lie low. “He’s in a good place mentally. He’s solid and we’ve heard from people who are with him that he’s like a rock.”
Hughes was due to be confirmed at an electorate meeting yesterday as Labour’s candidate for Otaki.
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 10:32 am
I like this story:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10715179
A Labour supporter who loook as if she’s about 90 years old says “I think the people who have been looking after him didn’t give him time to mature”. Hughes was 32 and most people are considered grown up and responsible by then. Hughes didn’t need people looking after him… he needed to look after himself.
Goff handled the matter badly, but this incident was never going to end in anything less than disaster. Goff has a reasonable expectation that his MPs are going to act like grown ups and shouldn’t be expected to look after people with maturity issues.
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 10:40 am
Manolo
The first is the one reported by Whale about a year ago. The second allegation is more interesting is that having heard the first allegation, I thought Hughes was openly gay and was surprised to discover that he wasn’t.
David P,
Replace mature with grow up and remember that he’s been an MP since he was 24 – her statement then makes sense in that he’s still acting like a 24 year old.
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 11:44 am
One angle that has not been mooted here, is that Hughes was a victim of some entrapment scheme. It would explain why Goff was so unsure about the course to take. What a disappointment that would be for the blood-thirsty kiwiblog lynch mob.
[DPF: It's not been mooted here because most people don't attack sexual assault complainants unless they have some reason to think they are being malicious.
But hey if you think the VRWC is so powerful it managed to hire a 18 year old kid (and former Labour Youth MP) to seduce Labour's Chief Whip, go ahead and enjoy whatever dimension you live in]
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 11:50 am
It’s a bit like watching a ferret in the hen house, plenty of noise, plenty of feathers, plenty of blood and long may it continue.
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 11:55 am
Desperation magic, desperation. Such a shame it’s not a full moon, that would explain it.
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 11:56 am
“One angle that has not been mooted here, is that Hughes was a victim of some entrapment scheme”
..dont think so…there seems to be a history of predatory behaviour against young men with this character Hughes .
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 11:56 am
Also – you guys should be more careful throwing stones. Politics is a glass-house, not made of lockwood. Just because National have garnered the support of the media, doesn’t mean they’re immune from the truth.
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 12:01 pm
When you think of it though, what was the crime?
The guy was eighteen, so we are looking at sexual violation, or indecent act.
The 18 guy says he is straight so that probably leaves attempted crime either way.
Hard to prove, so to speak, with all that booze. Either way, trial by TVNZ has already taken place.
And in lil old farming isles, that’s enough to end a political career.
Word of advice, you gonna put yourself in a spotlight in lil ol NZ, make sure you don’t get too cocky and feel indestructable.
Just ask the cast of that wonderful show, A Game of Two Halves, for instance.
Big fish in a VERY SMALL POND.
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
Happen to agree with you Magic. Plenty of not so good sordid stories around the national Party and I’m sure DPF has a big long list of them somewhere. Lots of Richard worths in the past of national. Just as there are lots in the past of Labour. Why do we think the John key has taken the dignified stand and said that its Labours to sort. They all have these issues.
Vote:What is so obvious and contradictory about all this is the media stance. I mean many of these things went on for 9 long years and longer but did the media ever attempt to front and expose them. Hell no. Even Granny Herald.
I’m stunned by the about turn in the media support or lack off for the Labour Party. The natural party of the media.
Don’t tell me all those sycophantic lefties from the media have had a epiphany and suddenly joined the right, well the the less left than Labour Actually.
What next.
March 27th, 2011 at 12:19 pm
DPF – you should know that in reality, machinations of power at this level can lead to some very strange goings-on.
I mean, you must have played some role in one of the National Party coups since Shiply so ruthlessly knifed Buldger, for not moving far right enough fast enough. That occurred after Winston grabbed a large part of the vote, because he campaigned on getting rid of National. So arguably, National lacked a popular mandate to proceed further down the Americanisation path.
Come on DPF – you can tell us
[DPF: I played no part in the Shipley coup or the English coup. I did have a minor involvement in outing the plotting against English and trying to stop the Brash coup. Incidentally I went on to work for Don quite happily.]
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 12:40 pm
Entrapment by his hormones and hidden-from-the-public homosexuality, maybe?
As the saying goes: you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. At same stage he had to come out of the closet. Unfortunately for him and his victim, it happened a few weeks ago.
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
“Also – you guys should be more careful throwing stones. Politics is a glass-house, not made of lockwood. Just because National have garnered the support of the media, doesn’t mean they’re immune from the truth.”
Only labour has “stone throwing” as an electioneering plank. While there are right wing bigots, you only need to go as far back as Worth to see the total intolerance there was of his behaiviour ( and that was very likely entrapment).
English was exonerated but as far as most of the bloggers on this site he blotted his copybook and has a lot of work to do to regain respect.
The suggestion that the revelation of wrong-doing is on a tit for tat basis and not on the existence of wrong-doing per se tells us more about you than anything else.
Look at the credit card saga. Key exposed the spending and dispatched the transgressors. Took Goff much longer — hampered by the fact that their sense of entitlement had them glued to the trough.
Rather than engage in silly threats, why don’t you man up and out the National transgressors – and give us some evidence. Do you honestly think that there is a shelf full of files in the Labour scandal room ready to be used as retaliation? If labour had any shit on any National or Act member it would have been out by now.
The jury is still out on Hughes. Goff fucked up whatever the outcome. Why not accept the fact. Stop trolling.
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Surely, three-hat Little must be quite pissed off.
Labour president Andrew Little is still waiting to speak to leader Phil Goff about the scandal that sank the career of the party’s brightest young star.
Little said he contacted Goff’s office in Parliament on Tuesday afternoon after receiving a call from a journalist. He left two more messages that night to say other journalists had called. However, Little said he had yet to speak to Goff and had instead spoken to chief of staff Gordon Jon Thompson and once to deputy leader Annette King on Friday.
Little said he and Goff had been together at least six times and the Hughes situation had not been mentioned. Goff said last night it had been a busy week and he had not had time to call Little.
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 6:20 pm
Yep, the quintessential Wellington insider.
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 6:51 pm
There should be a notice on Kiwiblog’s masthead. Please don’t feed the trolls.
cheers
David Prosser
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 8:19 pm
Fran O’S and I are miles apart politically, but, gee, she makes sense sometimes!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10714939
Vote:March 27th, 2011 at 9:56 pm
Re Fran O’s opinion:
Vote:1. Darren is no longer an MP. His fitness for office and credibility as a spokesperson is no longer an issue. This aspect can be parked.
2. Whether he has committed an offence is simply speculation and should be parked till the matter has been investigated. From then on it may be a public interest story but not necessarily one that has any political bearing.
3. Goff’s handling of this cannot be parked. As Fran says, he aspires to be PM but has been shown to have poor judgement and applied double standards. His explanation ( I was wrong then but I am not wrong now) even compounds his idiocy. A leader without any credibility is a joke. I do not think he can recover from this. Given the divisions in the labour party I do not think that he will recover.
4. Disagree with Fran on the world cup. Key may have been hoping against hope but the fact is that until the event was removed by the IRB it was scheduled to occur in ChCh and he was entitled to look at every possibility.
5. Agree entirely with her that we have more important matters to deal with than scoring grubby points. It’s time for a for people to step up and perform — around 120 of them.
March 28th, 2011 at 12:49 am
1. Agreed
2. Agreed
3. Agreed about Goff’s judgement, not neccesarily that it is irrecoverable. Key’s judgement has been shown at times to be appalling and he has told outright lies, but still remains.
4. Not agreed. If Key WAS hoping against hope then he is an idiot, which is distinctly possible.
5. Agreed
Vote: