By Chris Whitworth
Phil Goff was up late on Sunday, taking a rare break from work to watch the All Blacks-Argentina quarter-final.
And it’s no surprise the match resonated with the struggling opposition leader, Argentina - the ordinary but hard-working underdogs looking to shock the flashy and ever-popular All Blacks.
Six weeks out from the general election Mr Goff is under no illusions that Labour needs to pull off the great upset.
“We’ve got an understanding [that] we’re the underdogs so we’ve got to come from behind, and we knew that from quite early on in the piece,” he says.
History is firmly stacked against Mr Goff. In New Zealand’s entire political history only two governments have been booted out after their first term – and both were Labour.
Political commentators predict that if the All Blacks win the World Cup, National too will win the election. But while Mr Goff doesn’t buy into the formula, he does believe the tournament has provided John Key with a smokescreen on election issues.
The dire state of the economy, the rising cost of living, a potential environmental disaster – all forgotten after a slick Sonny Bill off-load.
But the World Cup party is winding down and Mr Goff says once New Zealand opens its bleary eyes to the cold-light of day, the future won’t look so rosy.
“It’s a bit like partying on a Saturday night, then on Sunday you’ve still got to wake up in the morning and face the fact that you’ve got to pay the bills, and you’ve got to work the next day.”
Phil Goff, the eternal party pooper.
It’s a little hard to picture Mr Goff at a party; he’d likely be the one complaining about beer spilt on the carpet or the music being too loud.
Meanwhile, Mr Key would be necking a few beers while burning a sizzler on the BBQ (see Prince William's visit). Sure, there would be a mess in the morning. Sure, the neighbours will complain, but he’d deal with that later.
The main problem with Mr Goff’s style of politics is that even when he’s right he’s wrong. Lacking in charisma or verbal dexterity, he is a true student of the old-school of New Zealand politics.
A fixture in the Labour Party since he was 15, Mr Goff has more in common with serious-minded leaders like Helen Clark or Robert Muldoon, than relatively media-friendly, latecomers John Key and Len Brown.
Mr Goff says Labour’s policies do the talking and anything else is just “style rather than substance”.
“I’d say that Labour is more inclusive; when you’ve got the bulk of the tax cuts going to the people that are already well off – that’s not inclusive. When you’ve got a whole lot of New Zealanders left out of and not sharing in the overall benefits of the community – that’s not inclusive either.
“So actually if you look at which party is inclusive and which party is looking after the haves rather than the lower and middle income New Zealanders, than I’d say it’s the other way round.”
Mr Goff pulls no punches when describing why Mr Key is so popular.
“Will John Key turn up on Morning Report or Campbell Live to answer the hard questions? No, he’s there for the photo op, not to answer the hard questions.”
He says there is no doubt PR firm Crosby/Textor is “beavering away” within the National camp to pump out positive spin on the Prime Minister’s image.
However, Mr Goff says last week’s Parliament jumper gave the public rare insight into Mr Key’s true character – stripped of the spin and façade.
Following the upstairs altercation, Mr Key was heard yelling “You should be ashamed of yourselves,” towards the Labour contingent.
“The shock that this guy [the jumper] had almost succeeded in throwing himself over, was replaced with a genuine sense of anger that John Key was trying to make politics out of this – it was just so absolutely inappropriate,” says Mr Goff.
Labour alleges Mr Key then made a throat-slitting gesture towards the opposition benches. The Prime Minister was then escorted out for security reasons.
But Mr Goff says the protestor had already been arrested and Mr Key was removed to cool down.
“John Key was actually sufficiently out of control that the whip ended up leading him out of the House – and he was due to speak after me.
“I thought you saw a dark side to the Prime Minister then, and even those of us in the House who are his opponents really, really felt that behaviour unbecoming of a Prime Minister or any member of Parliament in that situation.”
Mr Goff believes the Prime Minister is not all he seems behind his friendly exterior, just as he believes a second-term National party will prove to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
“If John Key gets reelected he’ll claim that he has got a mandate to do a whole lot of things that New Zealanders don’t really want to have happen.”
Among them, says Mr Goff, is to break his promise on only selling 49 percent of state-owned assets.
The issue has become the basis of Labour’s election campaign after National committed to a partial sale of New Zealand’s assets if they get a second term.
“This election is a referendum on the sale of assets. Vote for John Key and you’ll get the assets sold off, vote for Labour and we’ll keep the assets.
“You don’t get a second chance with asset sales. If John Key gets re-elected that means those assets will be gone and they won’t be ever coming back, and with them the dividends and the profits they make.”
If Mr Goff does not become Prime Minister in November it will not be down to a lack of hard graft – his work ethic around the press gallery is legendary.
He says he works seven days a week and his only time off is five or six hours set aside to sleep. Even his extra-curricular activities don’t see him putting his feet up – preferring a couple of hours work on the farm with a chainsaw or lambing.
Mr Goff works under the fervent belief that, in the end, hard work will prevail.
“What we need in our country… is to think smarter. We need to be innovative but we’ve also got to have a work ethic. Nobody owes us a living out there, it’s a hard world and I think we need to respond accordingly.”
No one doubts the Labour leader’s commitment, but to win an election you have to box smart, not hard.
Upsets are rare in the sport of rugby – but in the equally brutal world of politics, they’re anyone’s bet.
3 News
source: newshub archive
