Peters: Coalition no ‘dysfunction junction’

The coalition Government is not “dysfunction junction”, Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says.

The state of the coalition was front and centre yesterday at an event at the AUT campus in Auckland designed to showcase the unity between Labour, New Zealand First and support partner the Green Party.

Fronting media after a speech from Ardern outlining the Government’s 12 priority areas, Peters and Greens co-leader James Shaw were all asked about the coalition and how it was faring a year into Government and in the face of some public division on policy.

“This is not dysfunction junction, like the previous administration. We know what we’re doing,” Peters said.

He also dismissed a suggestion he was the tail wagging the dog.

“I’m not a tail. None of us is a tail. We don’t demean people with that expression. We are a seriously organised Government where we have an enormous programme, and you saw it today.”

Peters said he was “extraordinarily happy” with the current coalition but acknowledged that nothing was easy.

“You’ve got to make sure you’re consulting, taking your backbenchers with you, taking your party members with you. It’s all part of a major process.”

Shaw said the Greens had demonstrated it was a very good Government partner.

“For the last 20 years, there’s been this great fear that the Green Party was going to be this kind of crazy, unstable . . . ”

Ardern said the three parties “genuinely” worked together: “People will already know and accept we are three different parties . . . we do have different ideas and different opinions. What the public is seeing is simply that we work through those together.”