Phil Goff has been sacked as NZ's High Commissioner to the UK

Brian from Mount Roskill

Former Labour leader Phil Goff overstepped in his comments about United States President Donald Trump – despite being “right” he “was not diplomatic”, a foreign relations expert says.
Goff’s position as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom was stripped from him on Thursday by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters after Goff made “deeply disappointing” comments about Trump this week.
Asking a question of Finnish Foreign Affairs Minister Elina Valtonen at a Chatham House event in London, Goff said he had been rereading a speech by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1938 after the Munich Agreement.
“He turned to Chamberlain, he said, ‘You had the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, yet you will have war’,” Goff said.
“President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office. But do you think he really understands history?”
Peters moved quickly to take action, saying: “Phil Goff’s comments are deeply disappointing”.
“They do not represent the views of the New Zealand Government and make his position as High Commissioner to London untenable.
“We have asked the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Bede Corry, to now work through with Mr Goff the upcoming leadership transition at the New Zealand High Commission in London.”
University of Auckland associate professor of politics and international relations Dr Stephen Winter said Goff could have remained High Commissioner to London despite his “faux pas” in “a less fraught international environment ... but it is a time of profound tension”.
Winter told the Herald: “My sense is that Goff did step over the line when he impugned the honour of the American President and through him, the character of American foreign policy. NZ needs to steer a careful course, and it is Minister Peters’ call as to how that course should be steered.
“In a less fraught international environment, this faux pas might have been handled in ways that kept Goff in London. But it is a time of profound tension.
“But Goff can take comfort from the fact that he is right, even though he was not diplomatic.”
Meanwhile, former long-serving diplomat Peter Hamilton, who held posts in multiple countries, told the Herald Goff’s comments reflect how difficult it is for a former senior politician to cease being a politician once taking on a diplomatic role.
“While Goff’s comments might have been fine if he was still a serving NZ politician, they overstepped the mark when he makes them as the diplomatic representative of the Government of New Zealand,” Hamilton said.
He said Peters’ decision to recall Goff was logical in the circumstances because Goff had overstepped the boundaries for the New Zealand diplomat.
“Whatever our private views of Trump may be, and like Mr Goff we all have them, they take on a different hue when uttered in one’s capacity as a serving NZ diplomat.”
Former Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark, whose Cabinet Goff served in, posted on X after the announcement: “This looks like a very thin excuse for sacking a highly respected former NZ Foreign Minister from his post as High Commissioner to the UK.
“I have been at Munich Security Conference recently where many draw parallels between Munich 1938 and US actions now.”
Peters said he would have taken this action regardless of what country Goff’s comments were about.
“If he had made that comment about Germany, France, Tonga, or Samoa, I would have been forced to react. This is seriously regrettable. One of the most difficult things one’s had to do in a whole career,” he told reporters.
It was a difficult decision because: “I worked with Phil Goff, I have known him for a long time, I’ve worked in Government with him.”
Peters said officials advised Goff of the decision and it will be up to them to handle the timeline of his replacement.
He told the Herald he didn’t consult Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on the decision, though he did advise him of it afterwards.
Speaking in Cromwell, where he had been visiting local businesses, Luxon said he “expected our diplomats to be diplomatic”.
He said he didn’t expect to be consulted on Peters’ decision, which he said was “entirely appropriate”, nor did he feel sidelined.
“I expect my ministers to have total accountability over their portfolios. They are empowered to do that. Winston Peters is completely right to make the decision he made.”
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said Goff’s comments “were certainly more political than you would expect from a diplomat”.
“I think if a politician had said those comments, I don’t think anyone would particularly bat an eyelid, but Phil Goff is currently a diplomat, and so there is a different standard for diplomats.”
Goff, a former Labour leader and Foreign Affairs Minister, was appointed to the post by the Labour Government in 2022 and started work in London in January 2023.
He left Parliament in 2016 and was Auckland Mayor from November of that year until 2022.
Just months into the role, Goff caused offence to Kīngi Tūheitia at an event for the New Zealand delegation in London, after forgetting to perform a karakia (prayer) and telling the delegation no one in the room had experienced a coronation before.
Hipkins, then Prime Minister, said at the time it was “certainly regrettable”.
“It was a mistake. I think it is important, you know, in these sorts of events that we do acknowledge the Crown-Māori relationship, and Kīngi Tūheitia clearly has a relationship with the Crown over here – we should acknowledge that.”
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