The highs, lows and WTFs of Winston Peters, deputy prime minister
Thank you for your service, Winston Raymond Peters.
On Saturday, Winston Peters will finish his third stint as deputy prime minister of New Zealand, so here's a selection of highlights from the storied career of the National-NZ-First-coalition-deputy-prime-minister-turned-outcast-turned-Labour-NZ-First-coalition-deputy-prime-minister-turned-outcast-turned-NZ-First-Act-National-coalition-deputy-prime-minister-turned … ?
High: The king kingmaker
The MMP system has (mostly) been kind to Winston Peters. The NZ First leader's willingness to partner with either major political party has led to him essentially deciding the outcomes of the 1996, 2017 and 2023 general elections, each time having enough bargaining power to secure the role of deputy prime minister. Perhaps the kingmaker was the king all along.
WTF: Causing the 1998 coalition collapse
A dark time in Peters' career, though it certainly kept him in the headlines: following the introduction of MMP in 1996, NZ First formed the first coalition government with National, which lasted about 21 months before Peters was sacked from cabinet. He and prime minister Jenny Shipley – who had staged a coup against Jim Bolger in 1997 – had failed to see eye-to-eye over her plans to sell off the government's shares in Wellington Airport, and Peters walked out of government altogether.
The coalition may have been over, but Shipley's government limped on with the backing of some of Peters' former NZ First colleagues who were unwilling to join him on the opposition benches. Only one of the people mentioned above is still in government now, so who's the real loser?
High: Covering Jacinda Ardern's maternity leave
As deputy prime minister to the Labour prime minister Jacinda Ardern from 2017 to 2020, Peters' primary role was handbrake, whether it was preventing the introduction of a capital gains tax, delivering Auckland's much-mythologised light rail system, reaching a settlement for the Ihumātao occupation, repealing three strikes legislation, putting cameras on fishing boats or passing hate speech legislation in light of the March 15 terror attacks, among other things.
Then, for six weeks in 2018, Peters got to be prime minister while Ardern took maternity leave, and despite concerns from some quarters, his tenure passed pretty uncontroversially.
WTF: Bussygate
It was a fine Saturday morning when Peters took to X to let everyone know that Green MP Benjamin Doyle had used the word 'bussy' and was also a parent. What ensued was about two weeks of political reporters running around the halls of parliament trying to figure out what 'bussy' really meant, if we should be offended, and whether a spiral emoji was a kind of Batman symbol for paedophiles.
In the end, it must not have mattered that much to Peters after all, because he declined a one-on-one conversation with Doyle and has moved onto fighting hecklers at Wellington central train station. But it was kinda weird and homophobic, and made a good case for government officials needing to follow at least five young gay people on Instagram before purporting to speak for all New Zealanders.
High: Foreign affairs, ministered
There's something to be said about a minister who manages to do his best work outside of the country. Three-time deputy prime minister and three-time foreign affairs minister, Peters has been described as a ' born diplomat ', and his air miles leave no question of his commitment to the role. During this term alone he has spent 152 days travelling, visiting 44 countries, pushed for Aotearoa to retain an independent foreign policy, made Phil Goff jobless, and faced Trump officials.
It really all goes to show that sometimes the best export a country can have is a crotchety older gentleman.
Low: Something something Mexicans?
Despite the strides made in foreign affairs, maintaining positive domestic relations with New Zealanders who also happen to be immigrants (specifically from Mexico or something frighteningly similar, like perhaps the Philippines) has been a sore spot for Peters and his cohort lately. While his NZ First deputy Shane Jones has called to 'send the Mexicans home', Peters has opted for a softer policy, one which asks for New Zealanders born overseas who have the gumption to see themselves as New Zealanders to 'show some gratitude' and also never, ever use the word Aotearoa. No intel yet on whether a Latin America Reset will be established.
WTF: Putting the PM in his place
Slagging off the prime minister is not a skill you'd expect his deputy to have, and yet here we are. Luxon was 'struggling' in the top job because he was 'so new to politics', Peters told The Post in November, and by March the deputy prime minister was reminding everyone he had 'made' Christopher Luxon the PM. Come April, Peters told Luxon (via RNZ) that he should 'call me next time' before giving a speech to world leaders that supposedly included some 'hysterical' takes on the US trade war. Watch this space.
High: Living to see another day
Peters turned 80 in April. Surely that's something to celebrate.
High: Some great comebacks
'Lefty shill'; 'wokester loser'; 'you look like bollocks'; 'moron'; 'don't be a stupid little schoolboy'; 'on the marae, Megan, you keep quiet'; to name a few.
Low: Entrenching woke in the parliamentary vernacular
Some things should only exist on the internet.
High: Fighting declining parliamentary standards
It's just not the same place it was back in 1979.
Low: What is a woman?
Who the fuck cares?
WTF: Whatever comes next
A snap election? An increased focus on fighting the war on woke? and sending him in an ambulance hitting 100km/h? Basically more of the same? Only time will tell.
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Winston Peters out and about in the South Pacific. Photo: supplied When Winston Peters speaks about political engagement with the South Pacific, he walks his talk. Midway through his third stint as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Peters has once again demonstrated a commitment to the area which was a hallmark of his previous times in office. Now, as then, Mr Peters is a conscientious attender of regional conferences and forums; he has also visited 16 of the 17 other Pacific Island Forum member countries personally. Some of those countries have been visited twice or more, and Mr Peters has also twice taken cross-Parliamentary teams (with MPs from Labour and the Greens as well as National, Act New Zealand and his own New Zealand First party) to the Pacific. "That's important to send the message that even with future changes of government, our relationship with the Pacific will remain constant," Mr Peters said. 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I said why, they said why do we bother because no-one will talk to us, no one's seen us. "I then began to realise from a leadership point of view, just how vacuous many of their claims of the leadership were. It was actually a disgrace. "And so yes, it's been hard work and it's been exhausting for us time-wise, but we've managed to fill it and we've managed to talk to others alongside us as they realised that more had to be done on the Pacific." And in South East Asia. New Zealand has just signed an enhanced partnership agreement with Vietnam and last week in a speech in Wellington Mr Peters said New Zealand was "working hard" to similarly upgrades in its relationship with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and Singapore. Coincidentally, the Foreign Policy School is also hosting a roundtable commemorating 50 years of diplomatic relations between New Zealand and Asean. Photo: supplied Not that everything has been plain sailing in the Pacific though. There has been friction between New Zealand and Kiribati over the scheduling of official visits by Mr Peters, and a state visit by Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown to China earlier this year to sign a partnership agreement also raised alarm bells. News of New Zealand's response — pausing nearly $20 million of core sector support funding for the Cook Islands — emerged last week. One of the themes of the Foreign Policy School is great power competition between China and United States in the region; the gathering takes place at a time when Chinese interest in the Pacific is as high as ever, and as the US is cutting its aid programmes worldwide, including to the region. Just as the former presented challenges to New Zealand, the latter presented opportunities Mr Peters said. "We should always be, though, doing a review of our offshore aid and our offshore expenditure. America is having a massive one at this point in time. And then the second thing you've got to remember is it is their money, taxpayers' money. I think that there's some reasons to be confident that we'll have a greater engagement." To that end, New Zealand's Pacific international development co-operation programme has been revamped to focus on fewer, bigger, projects — an emphasis which it hoped means that they will be done better. Projects include efforts to build climate and economic resilience, strengthen governance and security, and to lift heath, education and digital connectivity. Although not one of Mr Peters' portfolios, he has been an advocate for greater defence spending, and has urged that with the Pacific very much in mind. Quite apart from any actual or perceived security threats, Mr Peters well knows that NZDF forces deploy to the region for many reasons, and that the greater role New Zealand can play in surveillance and emergency recovery the more the country is appreciated by its neighbours. "When you are seeking to talk to people, remember that they don't just talk to you, they look over your shoulder to see what's behind you, or they look at your record. If they find that you're all words and no action, then your level of influence is massively reduced. So that's the first thing," he said. "Then the second, right across the board ... we are actually expressing the need for greater defence spending. It's important. And remember this, though it's a commitment, the timing of the purchase, the optimisation of that purchase, and the interoperability of those purchases are critical. "So it's not all here right now, it's going to happen, but at least we've made the commitment, and therefore other countries who are forced to make a commitment will take us more seriously." • The University of Otago Foreign Policy School, June 27-29.
