Phil Goff has served as our High Commissioner to the U.K from 2022. Served in the past tense, as he was sacked from the job by Foreign Minister Winston Peters following Goff’s remark that “President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the oval office. But do you think he really understands history?” on the 6th of March, which was followed by Peters describing the situation as “untenable”. But why is it that Goff had to be sacked so quickly, and what buttons had such a comment pushed? I wanted to know, so I reached out to someone smarter and less abrasive than me, Associate Professor Patrick Barrett, to tell us more. Patrick said that although Goff’s comments on Trump’s behavior “Were not wrong[…]What was questionable was saying them in his role as New Zealand’s High Commissioner.” He added on that “Helen Clark said it wasn’t a sackable offense, […] though it does send a message that this government is not going to criticise Trump’s decisions.” It looks like this is Peters continuing put his foot forward as a serious Independent, and not just a hang-on of Luxon’s coalition. The fact that Peters did this without consulting the Prime Minister, from where Patrick stands, “says something about the relationship between them.” It’s not Patrick’s opinion that this has anything to do with the historical relationship between Goff and Peters. That all said, this appears to be Peters enforcing respectability politics as a method to keep the relationship that Aotearoa has with the United States as amicable and smooth as possible, as he is due to visit America in the coming weeks and likely wants to avoid any factors that might serve as speedbumps in the way of foreign relations.