The Labour MP Chris Carter is in trouble today. He wrote a letter which he handed to some reporters. The letter said that he believed Phil Goff, who is the Leader of the Opposition, does not have a chance to win the next election. He believed that another Labour Party MP should replace Phil Goff as leader. Chris Carter did not say who should be the new leader.
Chris Carter did not sign the letter. It was anonymous. However, he addressed each envelope in his own handwriting so it was easy to guess who had written the letter.
Phil Goff was angry and called a meeting of the caucus which is all Labour MPs. The caucus voted unanimously to expel Chris Carter. This means all members of the caucus voted the same way.
The Labour Party Council will meet on August 7th and will decide if he can stay in the Labour Party or not. If he is expelled from the Labour Party, Chris Carter will then have two choices. He can stay in Parliament as an Independent MP or he can resign from Parliament. If he resigns, there will be a special election called a by-election.
Chris Carter was one of the Ministers from the last Labour government who used his credit card to buy personal things. He also travelled a lot, and Phil Goff suggested that maybe he travelled too much, at a cost to the tax payer. Listen to Minister’s Credit Cards on June 20th (13th) 2010.
It is possible Chris Carter was thinking of how Julia Gillard replaced Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister of Australia. Listen to June 26th 2010 for more about Australia’s new PM.
Questions
1. Is it likely that other Labour MPs will support Chris Carter in the next few weeks?
2. Chris Carter believes very strongly in the Labour Party. Why might the Council want to expel him from the Labour Party?
3. Was an anonymous letter to reporters a good way to attack Phil Goff?