Clark to sort out the Peters dispute

Prime Minister Helen Clark leaves today to join Foreign Minister Winston Peters at the Commonwealth summit in Malta where they are expected to discuss the controversy surrounding his role.

The Opposition stepped up its attacks yesterday, accusing former Foreign Minister Phil Goff of undermining Mr Peters at the Apec summit in Korea last week.

Helen Clark raised the issue on Monday at the pre-Cabinet meeting Labour ministers hold without officials.

She has also had a one-on-one session with Mr Goff to discuss the events at Apec, which was attended by Mr Peters, Mr Goff as Trade Minister and outgoing Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton.

Mr Goff, now also Defence Minister, had been Foreign Minister for six years and earned a lot of respect before Mr Peters took the post outside the Cabinet in the new Government arrangements that limit his collective responsibility to his own portfolios.

In Korea last week, Mr Goff disclosed that he had discussed the arrangement with Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, and he likened Mr Peters' relationship to Labour as that of a mother-in-law who best kept her distance.

National used three MPs in its attack - leader Don Brash, foreign affairs spokesman Murray McCully and former leader Bill English.

Mr English said Helen Clark had overridden the conventions of the Cabinet Manual in order to become Prime Minister and could not now explain the arrangement properly.

Mr McCully quoted New Zealand First president Dail Jones, speaking in the Herald, as suggesting Mr Goff might have wanted "to destabilise the situation so that he might make a run as leader of the party if Helen goes".

Helen Clark, in response to a question from Dr Brash on Mr Peters' claim that the Herald had been "treasonous" in its coverage of Apec, told Parliament what she had told a press conference the day before: "I would not have used that term myself".

"In my experience in over 24 years in this place, protracted rows with the news media are not particularly productive, and my advice to both the New Zealand Herald and the minister is to get over it."

Mr Goff, speaking before the Labour caucus meeting yesterday, said there was nothing unusual in Mr Peters' meeting a defence minister in Britain.

Asked about the limits of Mr Peters' collective responsibility, Mr Goff said he would be bound by it.

"I think you will find that Mr Peters is working in his capacity as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the meeting and therefore the same doctrine of collective responsibility will apply."

Speaking in Parliament, he defended the mother-in-law analogy and said he had been very fond of his own mother-in-law, who died two years ago.

"She lived with us in our house for a while. It produced some strains. We built a granny flat and we each had our own space. That granny flat enabled us to co-exist quite well and that is exactly what the arrangement is with New Zealand First.

"We will make this work in the way that the National Party failed twice."