On March 25, 1940, John Alfred Alexander Lee, son of Dunedin,
delinquent, World War 2 hero, writer and "bolshie" activist
was expelled from Michael Joseph Savage's Labour Party.
It became very obvious this week that the various forms of
apology submitted by the Te Atatu MP Chris Carter to his
party leader Phil Goff, and to the public, were at best
insincere. This was the suspicion two months ago, given Mr
Carter's excitable behaviour, and so it has proved.
Shame on National. That party's behaviour in Parliament over
the past couple of weeks has on occasion veered close to
being a disgrace, both to itself and the institution.
Disgraced MP Chris Carter will get a chance to defend himself
to Labour Party leadership on Saturday and will be told in
the next few days which rules he is accused of breaking.
Can Phil Goff shrug off Chris Carter's very public and very
damaging charge that Labour's current leader cannot win next
year's election and should be replaced as soon as possible?
The short answer is not without some difficulty.
Labour Party leader Phil Goff should have learned a harsh
lesson about authority from the tragicomic events of the past
48 hours: when the knives are out, leaders must strike first.
