Dharamsala, July 30: New Zealand Labour Party’s errant MP Chris Carter says the Chinese government paid for his controversial trip to China and Tibet which he didn’t tell party leaders about.
Carter’s “unauthorised absence” annoyed party leader Phil Goff and is one of the issues which led to Mr Carter’s expulsion from Labour’s caucus on Thursday, media reports said.
Carter was suspended from the party’s caucus after circulating an anonymous letter to media at parliament, claiming there would be a challenge to Goff’s leadership.
“It was in the second week of a recess and the Chinese government picked up the whole tab,” Carter told NZPA today.
“There was no cost to the New Zealand taxpayer at all.”
Mr Carter said he didn’t tell party whips, or seek permission, because no taxpayer funding was involved.
“It was offered to me about four months ago because they were having a conference on poverty alleviation…I was in China for six days and I only spent one day in Tibet,” he said.
Mr Carter said he thought that if he had spoken to anyone about the trip, there would have been “another media beat up” about it.
An urgent Caucus meeting was held yesterday afternoon and a unanimous decision was made to eject Mr Carter over the unsigned letter he wrote aimed at undermining Mr Goff’s leadership.
“Chris’ behaviour has not been rational over this, it has been anything but rational and it is unacceptable,” Mr Goff said, speaking to media today.
“On a personal level we would like to see support given to him, but clearly his behaviour is such he is not fit to be a member of parliament,” Goff said.
He, however, hoped Mr Carter and his partner were getting support.
“If he is having difficulties then on a human side we would want to be supportive, on a political side there is no room for somebody who behaved the way he behaved.”
“I think Chris’ problem is that he developed a sense of entitlement, over his travel over his right to do anything he liked.”
An unsigned letter Mr Carter sent to media representatives on Thursday, seeking to undermine Mr Goff and foment a coup against him, backfired spectacularly.
Mr Goff said Mr Carter did not follow the rules when he took the trip because he didn’t tell the party whips he was going away.
“That’s two weeks we would have relied on him being here,” Mr Goff said.
Mr Goff found out Mr Carter had left the country only after the fact.
Senior Labour MP Trevor Mallard said Mr Carter went without permission from the Labour Party or Mr Goff and had exhibited some “pretty unusual” and “pretty irrational” behaviour lately.
Mr Mallard said the rest of the Labour caucus was behind Mr Goff.
As the leader of the opposition, Phil Goff met and held talks with the Dalai Lama even as Prime Minister John Key chose not to meet the exiled Tibetan leader during his visit to the country last year.
Earlier this month, a Labour party’s Chinese MP, Raymond Huo, faced fierce criticism for defending Chinese rule over Tibet on a Party website.
Mr Huo posted a blog, which appeared on Labour’s Red Alert website, criticising Green Party co-leader Russel Norman’s Tibetan flag protest in front of visiting Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping outside the Parliament in Wellington.
