Matthew Hooton has written about The Tragedy of Winston Peters in the Sunday Star-Times today. He talks about all of Winston's talent - a potential Prime Minister - being wasted in his joke of a role as foreign minister. It makes for interesting reading.xxx 3d cartoon evel
It's not that Winston has screwed up in his role as foreign minister so far - it's just that he isn't really doing the role. The government uses the excuse of Goff's defense and trade portfolios to send him to anything important instead of Peters. Consequently Peters is relegated to trips to Vanuatu.xxx 3d cartoon evel
He can't really advocate for his policies in cabinet. Goff chairs the foreign affairs cabinet committee. So what's the point?xxx 3d cartoon evel
The problem is that he was determined to stay out of cabinet, but still did want the baubles of office. But there are precious few senior ministerial posts that can be held by a minister outside cabinet without it becoming a farce. The Attorney-General could quite easily be out of cabinet (in fact it has been done before in New Zealand), as the role is supposed to be fairly independent of cabinet decisions.xxx 3d cartoon evel
But the foreign minister? It just doesn't work if the foreign minister is to fulfill their normal function. Winston seems to be finding this out the hard way. He really is acting as some sort of undersecretary of state attached to the foreign minister - dispatched to all those places that the foreign minister really doesn't want to visit.xxx 3d cartoon evel
Maybe we can make him our next ambassador to Iraq.xxx 3d cartoon evel
Hat Tip: David Farrarxxx 3d cartoon evel
Comments
My understanding of the A-G's role is that it's actually meant to be outside of Cabinet, so that they are not bound by the decisions of Cabinet or collective cabinet responsibility. For some reason that constitutional principle has been lost.xxx 3d cartoon evel