But to take the job of Foreign Minister, and with it the obligation to be the international face of another political party's policies, was to step away not only from the undertakings he gave to the nation on 7 September, but to turn his back on the hopes and aspirations of the movement he founded and still purports to lead.

Peters owes his followers something better than this bizarre, lip-synched swan-song, written and performed off-stage by Helen Clark and Phil Goff. Yet, if he attempts to sing his party's own song, the results are likely to be disastrous. Not only will he confuse and alarm our friends and neighbours in the Asia-Pacific region, and around the world, but he will also provoke a full-scale political crisis back home. And that can lead only to his humiliation, a new general election, or both.

He should resign immediately.