Chris Carter suspended from caucus

Chris Carter calls for Labour leader to go

BY VERNON SMALL

Dissident Labour Chris Carter is not going anywhere and has no plans to quit his seat in Parliament.

Mr Carter was suspended from his party's caucus today after writing an anonymous letter aimed at undermining Phil Goff's leadership.

His single-page letter to selected Press Gallery political editors said union-based MPs would challenge Mr Goff over his "relaxed" stance on government plans to allow workers to cash in their fourth week of holiday which is against Labour policy.

The Labour Party council will meet on August 7 and decide if Mr Carter can remain a party member. Mr Carter was the sole nomination for his Te Atatu electorate - which he won with a 5296 majority at the last election - but Mr Goff today said they would be reopened.

By stating he is staying on a by-election is averted.

Speaking on TV3's Campbell Live, Mr Carter said he wasn't going anywhere.

"The people who voted me to serve them I will be serving them until the election, I will be there as a Labour MP, if my Labour title has been officially removed from me it will still stay with me.

"I will be supporting Labour 100 percent, they'll have my vote. I will be encouraging everyone to vote Labour at the coming election and it would be nice if I was the Labour candidate for the next election."

Mr Carter said he remained "100 percent" Labour and his attack on Mr Goff's leadership was made out of loyalty not because he was angry at his demotion over his spending of public money.

"I'm not sulking and I am not that sort of person... If I have to be the political casualty out of this, if this is the end of my political career then so be it."

Asked why he behaved secretly rather than openly raising concerns with colleagues he said: "It doesn't work that way at Parliament... in a way I was hoping to get caught. I am not stupid, I took the letters down (to the mailroom) myself. I am not unhappy it's happened."

He was discovered when Mr Goff recognised his handwriting on the envelopes the letters were in.

Earlier Mr Carter told reporters that Mr Goff was a nice guy but not a winner.

Mr Carter said his letter was an attack on Mr Goff's leadership.

"I no longer believe it's possible for him to win the election," he told reporters.

"I think I owe it to the people I represent and the people who voted for our party that we have a leader who can win the election.

"Look, Phil Goff is a very nice guy but he's just not going to win and his latest flip-flop over the tradeable fourth week... was the last straw for me. Yes I was attempting to get a momentum going where our caucus would think about a leadership change and I am hoping that my actions will cause some of my caucus colleagues to reflect on something which I think almost all of them would come to the conclusion: that nice as Phil is he's just not going to win."

On TV3 Mr Carter said it was up to caucus who to replace Mr Goff with and would not name anyone but in his letter he suggested David Cunliffe would be happy with a leadership coup.

He had no leadership aspirations and his dream, which he conceded was over, had been to become foreign minister.

Mr Cunliffe has ruled out a leadership attempt before next year's election and said Mr Goff had his "100 percent" backing.

Mr Goff said there was no tension over his leadership.

"This is an action of an individual on his own. He (Mr Carter) got no support and no sympathy from the Labour caucus."

Earlier Mr Goff said Mr Carter had no future in the Labour Party he led.

He had been offered an opportunity to work himself back into favour after being sent to the backbenches.

But after this ''unacceptable and stupid'' act, there were "no more chances".

"Chris Carter's future in the Labour caucus has come to an end.''

Labour president Andrew Little said the party would consider Mr Carter's future on August 7 and he was entitled to be heard.

"The fact that the caucus has unanimously suspended him is a pretty compelling case."

It is understood CCTV inside Parliament caught pictures of the person putting the letters into the mail system.

It claimed finance spokesman David Cunliffe was expected to challenge Mr Goff and deputy Annette King before the next election.

On the issue of cashing in a week's leave, Mr Goff had said in an interview: ''Well, I don't have huge objections to that, as long as the decision is freely arrived at by the worker, and the worker is not pressured to do it. If you've got that safeguard in, then if somebody chooses to do that, then I'm quite relaxed about it.''

''The issue has brought to a head the growing discontent in the caucus with both Goff's leadership and his poor polling,'' the letter said.

The letter - in an airmail envelope marked with the words ''Office of Minister of Finance, New Zealand'' but without a postage stamp on it, also reported that Manurewa MP George Hawkins would be challenged by a member of ''the Engineers Union'' with nominations due to close on September 1.

''George is threatening a by-election and since the party is broke there is panic in the ranks over this prospect,'' the letter said.

Mr Little heads the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union.

Earlier Mrs King described the letter as ''a piece of malicious mischief''.

She did not know who was behind it or whether it was another Labour MP. She said the party hoped to uncover the culprit

''As you know I'm a former minister of Police and let's say we're following some leads.''

Mr Hawkins did not rule out a challenge and when asked if he was threatening a by-election he replied ''come back in the New Year and I'll tell you''.

Asked if he knew of a challenge against him for selection, he said people always wanted to stand against him. ''None of them have succeeded.''

Mr Cunliffe ruled out a challenge to Mr Goff.

Mr Carter was demoted to the backbench and stripped of his foreign affairs role last month over his handling of the fall out from spending on his credit card when he was a minister.

- with NZPA