Phil Goff – the great Left hope of Labour who wasn’t
Phil and I go back a ways to 2008…
Lost file includes details on notorious criminals
A confidential file lost by the Department of Corrections includes information on some of the country’s most infamous criminals, including David Wayne Tamihere and Bailey Junior Kurariki.
The highly sensitive file was apparently found on an Auckland street by a member of the public, revealed by TV3 last night as a former Corrections employee.
Martyn “Bomber” Bradbury, has undertaken to facilitate the return of the document to police.
The dossier, entitled “High Risk/High Profile Offenders — Pending New Zealand Parole Board Hearing” includes personal details, addresses offenders are to be or have been paroled to and issues tagged as potential problems.
Bradbury described the file as “a release schedule and details for some very nasty, heinous and notorious ticking timebombs…”
Corrections officials and police went to see Mr Bradbury yesterday and he gave an assurance to organise its return, and promised the contents would be kept confidential.
Corrections Minister Phil Goff was alarmed by the dossier incident, saying the information could be misused.
…and let’s not forget the Auckland Mayoralty debate I hosted in 2019…
Mayoral candidate John Tamihere defends ‘sieg heil’ comment
Auckland mayoral candidate John Tamihere is defending his use of the words “sieg heil” during last night’s lively political debate with Phil Goff, despite being lambasted for it on social media.
…Phil’s standing down after 41 years of public service and it’s worth acknowledging his service while accepting his missed potential and opportunity for the Left.
He always denied he was a neoliberal architect but that was when it had become unfashionable to admit it.
He’s always very warm in person and accepts that with public service comes a certain amount of criticism but I have always felt terribly let down by Phil.
He is smart, he is incredibly clever yet his free market devotion which saw him cross the floor of Parliament and vote for the TPPA alongside his staunch support of America always blunted any real left wing progress under his time as a Leader.
In his leadership of Auckland as Mayor, he has been passionate about the climate and he’s made the right noises, but his decision to remove oversight of AT was a terrible blunder that has allowed them to mutate into the deformity it is now.
By banning Southern and Molyneux from using Council spaces, he accidentally help trigger the free speech fight that transformed ACT from a 1% Party to a 10%.
Mistakes and a bewildering faith in free market capitalism aside, there is no doubt Phil will make an excellent High Commissioner in the UK.
I wish him the best, it’s a pity he never lived up to the hopes we all had.
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He betrayed the public and the judicial system with his sham ministerial inquiry into the Peter Ellis convictions. Utterly reprehensible.
Former student leader cum student basher….”Fuck off Goff’ (for the past 40 years)
Yes, people thought he’d make a top notch prime minister and that it would last for at least four or five terms. However, the reality of it is that it’s never that simple. I think there was “communication” issues between Phil and some of the lower level staff at one point. It is a case of the man not being as mighty as the hype surrounding him. I don’t know him personally but have formed an opinion based on the opinions of others, that is that he has a very good intellect and I do wish him well too.
Phil struck me as an inoffensive chap and 100% the politicians politician and has been amply rewarded for his service to the public.
Blander than a beige coloured paper bag and was always a man to have a dollar each way and mostly fence sat. Whatever way the wind blew seemed to guide his decision making.
I doubt he would have won this time around because just sometimes you have to take a stand on an issue and he never did as some of his Council Controlled Organisations did what they wanted to the detriment of the majority whilst trying to appease the cool liberal minority. Or conspicuous by his silence during Aucklands huge lockdown in 2021, seemingly blind to the problems it caused his fellow residents. Some agitation wouldn’t have gone amiss to shorten the unnecessary length of it but he was a good boy for Labour and said nothing! And Auckland was much the poorer for it!
He didn’t do anything particularly bad, rather he didn’t do anything at all.