Sitting on a plane, having a yak to the Prime Minister, heading to the Big Apple after the 2011 election, he made an admission that he would never have admitted just a few months before. Phil Goff would have made a good Prime Minister, John Key conceded. The bloodied Goff simply said it wasn't their time and of course up against the wildly popular Key, who'd been in office for just three years, it was something of an understatement. He'd stepped down from the leadership three days later and another three leaders on, Labour's still got the same problem, John Key. As the popularity of Rogernomics began to wane, and with Lange losing his lustre, Goff remained generally supportive of the rambunctious Finance Minister Roger Douglas.

Source: New Zealand Herald October 11, 2016 15:56 UTC