Matt McCarten: Remove rogue MP's thorn before poison spreads

Phil Goff may be undermined by his caucus, as was former PM Mike Moore. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The loonies have taken over the asylum. The meltdown in Parliament is just embarrassing.

The Act Party was founded by the right-wing titans of neo-liberal economics as a shining beacon of economic and social freedom.

Instead, the party has morphed into a New Zealand version of the rabid tea bag movement in the United States - celebrating red-neckism, gun rights, locking away crims and putting the boot into Maori whenever they get too uppity.

Act's troubled law-and-order champion David Garrett resigned on Thursday. Bizarrely, he accused sinister forces inside Act of working to bring down its leader, Rodney Hide. To save Hide, Garrett had to take the bullet for his leader.

Founder Sir Roger Douglas has clearly gone gaga, attacking John Key this week for not wanting him in Cabinet.

Sir Roger accuses Key of giving welfare to business and not helping workers enough. Grandpa Gaga would be right at home in Alice's Wonderland.

No wonder Key is running a mile from these wackos.

Which brings me to the wacko on the other side of the aisle. Just when National was on the ropes because of Act's lunacy and Phil Goff was hitting his stride in taking the attack to National, in walks Chris Carter.

After eight weeks on paid leave, he struts brazenly into his new parliamentary office, claiming he's still a Labour MP and looking forward to running for the party in Te Atatu at the next election.

The small point that Carter had been expelled from the Labour caucus and the Speaker of the House had deemed him an independent was seemingly missed by the strange member from Te Atatu.

I was struck by his jovial confidence this week. He's either still in the parallel universe he occupied before his expulsion or he has been buoyed by other caucus members' support and believes he has a chance of a comeback.

Carter claimed he was too ill to respond to the party's request for an explanation for his actions in setting up a fictional coup against Goff, yet he radiated a picture of health this week.

It is woeful that the Labour Party council is dithering over the charge against him of bringing the party into disrepute. What is going on?

Rumour is that Carter is continuing to work on his ability to survive in the party, with the covert support of others.

Goff is in a similar position to the one Mike Moore occupied. In the 1993 election campaign, Moore tried to lead his broken party back to government.

He claimed that he was undermined covertly and consistently by certain factions in his own caucus who wanted him to fail. Moore had a right to be bitter about the treachery. He came within two seats of winning government.

It will always stick in my mind that a few days after that election, a gleeful Labour MP admitted to me that many MPs were delighted that Moore lost narrowly so they could install Helen Clark as a shoo-in to be the next prime minister.

The whisper is that the same agenda is being played out again, with Goff as the hapless fall guy. Same treachery, different players.

The defeatist assumption is that Goff can't win and he'll fall dutifully on his sword when he loses the next election, thus opening the way for someone more to the liking of certain power elites.

I don't think this is a deliberate agenda but Carter obviously believes it. The longer Carter can drag out his expulsion process, the harder it is for Goff and his party.

To any layperson, this case is quite cut and dried. Any process must ensure fairness for the individual but the party has rights, too. This is politics and Carter is a distraction.

Labour needs to take a leaf out of Act's book. Garrett was messy but the boil was lanced quickly. Unlike Garrett, Carter is too selfish to resign.

Therefore, president Andrew Little needs to act now (pun unintended).

Goff must be supported fully to get on with his job without the albatross.

My advice from last week for the strategic progressive vote is on www.supercitypicks.com.