Peters stays off panel usually chaired by foreign minister

Winston Peters

Winston Peters' desire to keep his distance from the Labour-led Government looks like creating the bizarre situation of the Foreign Affairs Minister having to be briefed by his departmental officials on the key decisions of the Cabinet committee which he would normally be expected to chair.

While the post-election composition of Cabinet committees is still to be finalised, the Prime Minister has told the Herald she has asked Defence Minister Phil Goff to chair the external relations and defence committee in Mr Peters' absence.

Mr Peters has indicated he will not become a member of the committee, even though it will be a crucial forum where ministers discuss foreign policy matters before they are referred to the full Cabinet.

As part of his strategy to avoid NZ First copping any public backlash from Labour's policies, Mr Peters claims he is not part of the Government even though he is a minister.

The NZ First leader is not in the Cabinet. However, ministers outside the Cabinet - his designation - frequently sit on Cabinet committees. Departmental officials are sometimes also present to provide further background information or advice.

Helen Clark sees no problem in Mr Peters not sitting on the Cabinet committee covering such a major portfolio, saying either she or Mr Goff will take papers to the committee on his behalf.

She said Mr Peters would anyway be briefed by his officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The chief executive of the ministry, Simon Murdoch, would be attending committee meetings.

Mr Peters had not ruled out occasionally going to meetings and that would be likely when members had to deal with a major issue, such as some crisis in the region, she said.

There is a sort of halfway house there. If it's really important, he would want to be there.