Editorial: A week to forget for Phil Goff

OPINION: It's been a horror week for Opposition leader Phil Goff, culminating in the Prime Minister raising valid questions about his judgement.

And for someone who wants to be the country's next prime minister, his success will be determined as much by public perceptions of his judgement as it will by his policy proposals.

Anyone who attracts as much public scrutiny as Mr Goff will always trip up from time to time, but a pattern of behaviour is beginning to emerge that might have his Labour colleagues questioning his ability to lead the party back to power.

First, Mr Goff called for workers made redundant during the recession to be eligible to receive the unemployment benefit regardless of how much their partner earned, then backtracked, saying the policy would exclude the very wealthy. He held up a Helensville man Bruce Burgess who, conveniently, lives in John Key's electorate as the poster boy for his proposal.

Mr Goff said Mr Burgess had lost his job and might lose his lifestyle block, but did not qualify for state financial assistance. The 63-year-old had worked all his life, saved and never collected a benefit and was now facing severe hardship because his wife earned a paltry salary of less than $30,000 a year.

It turns out, however, that Mr Burgess owns two other properties worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not only that, Mr Goff was aware of the other properties but failed to mention them because they provided ``no significant capital asset''.

In politics, if you're going to hitch your wagon to a horse you better make sure it has four legs. That Mr Goff saw Mr Burgess' other properties as irrelevant to the issue he was highlighting suggests he is dangerously out of touch with the voting public.

His poor choice of Mr Burgess as a political football came just weeks after he demonstrated similarly poor judgement in getting heavily involved in allegations levelled at National Minister Richard Worth by a woman who was later identified as a Labour Party activist.

In his haste to score political points against the Government on both occasions, Mr Goff publicly stepped onto a platform that quickly crumbled under the weight of media scrutiny.

That scrutiny will only intensify as the next election draws closer so Mr Goff must lift his game if he wants to be involved in it, let alone win.

One more thing

I'm sure I speak for everyone who read yesterday's story of the death of Amelie Peck in saying that the thoughts of the entire community are with her family during this difficult time.

Having battled and overcome so many health problems since being born premature, the one-year-old died on Saturday after contracting swine flu. It's impossible to imagine the grief attached to losing a child, especially one so young and in such tragic circumstances.

Hopefully the Peck family has all the support they need.

- © Fairfax NZ News