Audrey Young: Goff has gone the distance since glory days of '81 tour

Labour Party leader Phil Goff. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A peaceful Sunday afternoon at Parliament yesterday was disturbed by a rowdy demonstration by chanting protesters beneath the Dick Seddon statue.

On closer inspection it turned out to be a mock-up.

There was a hint of that in the sight of a uniformed cop sitting on Parliament's steps with his helmet off and swinging his baton nonchalantly. The camera in a nearby cherry-picker zooming in on protesters shouting "Amandla!" was the giveaway. It was part of Tom Scott's historical drama Rage, a dramatisation of the 1981 Springbok tour.

Justice Minister Simon Power took a break from reading Cabinet papers to dash out of the Beehive but managed to answer one question: he was in Form 1 during the tour.

It was a milestone year for Labour leader Phil Goff, who turned 28 and was first elected as the young MP for Roskill.

This will be the biggest year for Goff, possibly his last in politics if he doesn't win the election. On the other hand he could make history by doing what hasn't been done since Rob Muldoon in 1975 and oust a sitting Government after just one term.

Goff's party conference ended unusually yesterday at the Wellington Town Hall in another chant - "Phil Goff! Phil Goff! Phil Goff!"

It seemed spontaneous enough, though it is hard to imagine any Labour conference under Helen Clark's leadership ending in a "Helen Clark" chant. At the start of her leadership it would have been contrived. At the end, it was not necessary - no emphasis needed. Goff has been leader for 2 years.

Based on his conference performance, he is certainly more confident in his leadership than during the defensive bluster of two months ago as he justified keeping shtum about the sex complaint against former senior whip Darren Hughes.

MPs' speeches were kept to a strict minimum: Goff and deputy leader Annette King. Opportunities for others to shine were denied. Potential future leader David Parker had to be content that his R&D policy got the headlines. Another potential future leader, David Cunliffe, has never made a speech to the conference in public session in the three years he has been finance spokesman.

Shane Jones in a Waka Huia documentary yesterday openly admitted to having harboured leadership aspirations, but also honestly acknowledged that "no matter how desirable a position is, if you haven't earned the respect of your colleagues, you will never get there".

The mana of senior MP Trevor Mallard within the party has been frequently tested but it is as high now as it has ever been. He is the shadow leader of the House, the procedures guru, the driving force behind the Red Alert website and now the campaign manager. He played an active role in the conference, behind closed doors.

Conference choreography pointed to other future powerbrokers. Rising star and Te Tai Tokerau byelection candidate Kelvin Davis was given the honour of responding on behalf of Labour at the powhiri on Saturday morning.

The highest profile for an MP went to the fastest-emerging powerbroker in Labour, Wellington Central MP and health spokesman Grant Robertson, as conference MC.

Lamenting the shows they may have missed in the Wellington comedy festival, he named some as Gerry Brownlee's I Fought the Pie and I Won, Peter Dunne's Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow and Murray McCully's South Pacific, sponsored by the NZ Air Force.

In Auckland, he said, John Banks was completing the cast for the remake of Grumpy Old Men, with Don Brash and Roger Douglas. The next movie in that series would be No Country for Old Men and would coming out on November 26 (election day).

The more serious role Robertson has landed this year is a major one, as Labour's campaign spokesman.

He might be just a first-term MP but Robertson is deeply schooled in party politics and traditions as well as being a fresh and presentable face. He is already being cited as a potential leader. It is to Goff's credit that he is providing a platform for a new generation - Grant Robertson was only 9 at the time of the 1981 Springbok tour.