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Therese Arseneau -
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Panel discussion in response to Paul Holmes' interview with Phil Gof
PAUL It is time to welcome our panel Political Scientist Therese Arseneau, Therese is with us every week with her insight from the University Canterbury, also this morning we have Political commentator and former Prime Ministerial media advisor to Jim Bolger Richard Griffin and the former president of the Labour party Mike Williams. Well what do we make of this, really what do we make of this, does it matter that Key left Worth there for a week?
RICHARD No it doesn't matter, first thing I would have thought the Prime Minister would think, I mean this is a tribal issue in a sense, I know it's tacky and there are certainly elements that Phil Goff didn't want to discuss and I would imagine the Prime Minister wouldn't want to discuss but it comes from the Labour camp in a sense so your first response would be is this entrapment, just how much truth is there in a lot of these allegations.
It's coming from a Labour Party activist initially it would be quite suspicious. I would have thought of instead of going to your own staff in your office you would go straight to the Whips first and get the Whips to do the hard work and then come back to your office.
But the week between - I take your point the budget is certainly a consideration and of course it's a political consideration and you'd have to put it in the mix - but more importantly you'd want to know the truth and so you get your own folk to find out the truth even if it takes a week or a fortnight - as you say this is not a shooting matter, this is something that a minister can carry on despite the fact that he's been accused of all sorts of things - including sleaze - it doesn't make a difference to the government so in fact he handled it relatively well up until then.
THERESE I think he made the right decision of letting him go, I actually think he handled it well. I think actually he blundered in ways that were so unnecessary,I actually think this was quite a straight forward case.
PAUL It's a tough one though, because you see you've got a police investigation..
THERESE But you see I think that's a red herring I don't think that's the issue though
PAUL You've had a meeting with Mr Goff
THERESE He doesn't get to, the standard to be a minister, is not, he doesn't have a God given right to be a Minister, you don't get to stay until you're indicted of a crime, you stay as a minister so long as you hold the confidence of the Prime Minister. This is entirely the Prime Minister's call, it's not just based on lawfulness but also based on upholding the highest ethical standards, and that is why, I think, the real problem I think for John Key started with that initial press release which was that this was a private matter and he resigned for private considerations - that was fundamentally untrue and
RICHARD I'd agree to that
THERESE and that is not a criminal charge that they keep.
