Chris Carter suspended from caucus

BY VERNON SMALL AND MICHAEL FIELD

LATEST: Dumped Labour Party MP Chris Carter has confirmed he wrote a letter tipping a leadership challenge, and has declared Labour needs a new leader.

Carter has just arrived in Auckland and told waiting media he believed leader Phil Goff could not win the next election and Labour needed a leader who could.

Carter said he hoped his letter would start a momentum for leadership change in the party.

"A new leader is needed ... I think people have concluded that as nice as Phil is, he's just not going to win.''

Goff has suspended Carter from the caucus over an anonymous letter delivered to press gallery offices this morning tipping a leadership challenge.

The move came after an urgent meeting of the party this afternoon to discuss disciplining Mr Carter.

Mr Goff said Mr Carter had admitted he was responsible for the letter being written and circulated.

It was sent through the internal parliamentary mail service.

''At first he denied it and, when pushed admitted it.'' Mr Goff said.

''Chris Carter has no future in the Labour Party I lead.''

Carter said in Auckland this evening that he was glad people knew it was him who sent the letter.

He said the Labour caucus was "depressed and fatalistic".

"I hope my actions cause people to reflect."

He said there were a number of people who could do the job better than Goff.

He was not disloyal and he indicated he would not force a by-election but continue to vote for labour even if he was expelled and became an independent.

"I was elected for the full term of Parliament," he said.

"If this has been my political death knell, so be it."

Carter has just arrived in Auckland, declaring "I feel liberated".

He is currently holding a press conference.

Eariler Goff said Carter 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 bosses would meet on Saturday week and decide his future and they were expected to expell him.

''I would expect nominations to be reopened for Te Atatu,'' Mr Goff said.

Mr Carter is the only nomination for the west Auckland seat, which he holds with a 5298 vote majority.

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

It claimed union-aligned MPs would challenge Mr Goff at next week's caucus meeting over his position on the Government's policy of allowing a fourth week of annual leave to be cashed in if employers and employees agreed.

It also 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.

Labour president Andrew 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.

- © Fairfax NZ News