Dame Silvia tipped for foreign post in future

Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright may be in line for a diplomatic posting when her term expires - and it could be to replace former MP Graham Kelly in Ottawa.

Mr Kelly's term expires in a year and Dame Silvia's two months after that.

Dame Silvia is known to be keen to move into an international posting either for New Zealand or in an international organisation such as the United Nations.

Speculation in the Transtasman newsletter yesterday that she will get Ottawa was naturally denied by Foreign Minister Phil Goff, given that no decision had been made.

"While the Governor-General would make an excellent representative for New Zealand, the story is untrue," he said through a spokesman.

Government House public affairs officer Stefan Wolf said Dame Silvia still had 14 months to go in the job and "it is way too early to make any decisions about what she would do afterwards".

"She is fully concentrating on the remainder of her term."

Dame Silvia, a former High Court judge, was also a member of the United Nations committee monitoring compliance with the UN Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Mr Kelly looks set to see out his term despite calls for his resignation after revelations that he was censured by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by Mr Goff for comments to a Canadian Senate committee on fisheries.

He said Maori had been at war since arriving in New Zealand and had eaten each other, and referred to Asians "strip-mining" the beaches.

Mr Kelly has found an ally in New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, who says the outcry is "political correctness gone mad".

He said the fact was that before the arrival of Europeans, "Maori lived in a savage society in which inter-tribal war was a very frequent occurrence and, yes, a number of people got eaten in the process". "