COMPARED TO what some European politicians have been saying about him, Phil Goff's criticism of President Donald Trump was very mild indeed. And to suggest that Trump does not have a good understanding of history is also true. We are, after all, talking about the guy who was recently claiming that Russia did not start the war with Ukraine and is still insisting that he won the 2020 Presidential election.
Nevertheless, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, swiftly moved to sack him as New Zealand's High Commissioner to the UK. Former Prime Minister Helen Clark has described this as a 'new low bar' and a 'thin excuse' to get rid of Goff.
But it seems that the position of the New Zealand Government is to 'bend the knee' to Donald Trump, no matter what he says or does.
It was just two years ago that the Labour Government joined twenty-two other countries in supporting the Ukrainian case against Russia at the International Court of Justice for the invasion of Ukraine. New Zealand sent a legal team to The Hague, and our legal representatives addressed the court on New Zealand’s behalf.
But, in 2025, the main concern of Minister of the Foreign Affairs is not to annoy Donald Trump. This is the same Donald Trump who has described the Ukrainian President as a 'dictator' and blocked the further supplies of arms to his country. Just a day or so ago, Trump also cut off any further intelligence support to Ukraine.
Peters has described Goff's comments as 'untenable', and has been limply supported by Labour leader Chris Hipkins. But what is really 'untenable' is that the New Zealand Government has surrendered the country's foreign policy independence to a U.S. administration that has effectively given the green light to further Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Trump might be posing as a 'neutral' dealmaker between Russia and Ukraine, but, in practice, the Trump administration is publicly supporting Russian demands and rejecting Ukrainian demands. Trump’s calls for U.S. 'ownership'of Gaza in Palestine and for U.S. annexation of Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal are as brazenly imperialist as Putin’s attempt to annex Ukraine.
But the New Zealand coalition government has decided that the country's interests lie in supporting the imperialist interests of a declining American Empire. That's the real disgrace, not the comments of Phil Goff.
Goff was a diplomat. There's not much to the job - ambassador gigs are often well-paying farewell gifts from the party to losing politicians. Apart from dressing up, eating, drinking and schmoozing with other wealthy types, all a diplomat has to do is be nice to and about all political actors no matter how odious they might be. If he wanted to express disdain he didn't need to continue with the charade, he just needed to quit.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of people with real problems in this world, and in selling out the very point of the Labour Party and removing the political voice for the working class, Goff made genuinely difficult lives even harder.
So, it seems Goff is used to being rewarded for betraying the very point of his career existences. I wish he had paid the price for the major, harmful dereliction, not for this meaningless and hypocritical piece of theatre.