Mr Goff has admitted he got it wrong when he pressured Prime Minister John Key to reveal details of a police investigation into a former National MP.
Mr Goff says he has a better understanding now of how these things work and regrets pressuring Mr Key at the time to discuss aspects of the police complaint.
I cede the floor to Mr McEnroe.
So let’s get this straight:
One of the only issues in this term where Goff has been able to largely control the story, stand up for a progressive principle in the face of horrific misogyny and victim-blaming and conspiracy-theory-spinning. The scalp of a Minister and an eternal “so why was he fired, Mr Open Smile and Transparent Wave?”
… was all a fucking mistake because a former Minister of Justice, whose deputy is a former Minister of Police, didn’t know how sensitive-political-ramifications investigations went?
Let’s consider something far less Pythonesque.
Phil Goff doesn’t actually believe in the right of women not to be sexually harassed and doesn’t really think New Zealanders have the right to know why a Minister of the Crown was bundled out of a job. Phil Goff sat on his fucking hands over whatever allegations have been levelled at Darren Hughes and hoped it would all go away and has no one in his staff who thought “maybe this could fucking backfire on us a tiny bit”.
And now that it has, now that those principled statements have been revealed as waffle, the only possible way to make this not about hypocrisy and cover-ups and double standards is to tell the public Phil Goff has no fucking idea what he’s doing.
That is their idea of “positive” spin.
We are just so fucked.
Spineless. And yeah we sure are.
Maybe you should have titled this post “Hypocrisy watch” QoT.
Let’s see Chris Trotter, architect of the Goff “Nationhood defence” try to defend this.
We’re waiting for you, Chris, with bated breath.
But then Darren Hughes is queer, so not part of your and Goff’s “mainstream”, eh Chris. So whatever he may or may not have done, he is expendable, isn’t he Chris.
Actually, you and Phil never really wanted “people like that” there in the first place, did you Chris?
After all, he’s not a “red-blooded man” who gets off on girly porn like Shane Jones.
Oops, I failed to consider that Shane Jones is Maori. That may pose Chris Trotter with a bit of conflict in that instance.
Well, he’s probably one of the Good Maori who aren’t throwing away The Great Class Struggle in favour of piffling little basic-cultural-indigenous-sovereignty issues.
Hi there talkback, I’m a long-time listener and a first-time caller. Great to be on the show.
One of the things that is offending – nay, infuriating me is that some on the left side of the debate seem to be holding Goff/Labour’s initial closing of ranks around Hughes as some sort of victory.
“Look! They’re protecting the homosexual! Labour is so enlightened and inclusive!”
Newsflash geniuses. They’re protecting the rich white male in the position of authority against allegations of a sex crime. THAT’S NOT A FUCKING VICTORY.