Bennett is OK with Peters deal
Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett is prepared to step aside from the leadership role if it means getting a deal across the line with NZ First leader Winston Peters.
Bennett, who is in the caretaker position until a new government is formed, said she’s not ‘‘too bothered’’ if she has to sacrifice the job for a coalition deal because she would ’’still be the deputy leader of the party and that’s the main thing really’’.
National is in the process of drawing up its negotiation team as NZ First MPS head to Wellington today for a caucus meeting.
Neither National Party leader Bill English nor Labour leader Jacinda Ardern have spoken directly with Peters yet, who made it clear he first wanted to meet his caucus and board before any negotiations got underway.
Both Peters and Ardern had indicated that they would like to wait until the ‘‘special vote’’ – about 15 per cent of the total – was counted on October 7.
The special vote was expected to give the Left bloc one or two extra seats, meaning a Labour/nz First/greens coalition would have some buffer seats over the 61-seat governing line.
Bennett said yesterday on her way into the National Party’s first caucus since the election that she didn’t have a relationship with Peters so wasn’t surprised not to be part of any negotiations. ’’I just don’t have a relationship with him and am sure he’d rather negotiate with people he knows.’’
Asked whether Peters has an issue with her because he blames her and her office for his superannuation overpayment leak, Bennett said she didn’t share the information with anyone.
Peters went public with his overpayment on the campaign trail after, he says, National sources warned him it had been leaked to media.
English said he would expect some ‘‘differences of opinion’’ with Peters but he didn’t think any controversy around Peters’ pension payment leak would affect negotiations.
Speculation has been rife over who would and wouldn’t be involved in negotiation talks and caretaker Finance Minister Steven Joyce is expected to have a lesser role because of the bad blood between himself and Peters. The NZ First leader holds him responsible for an aggressive campaign in Northland that saw him lose the seat after only holding it for 21⁄2 years.
However, Joyce says he expects to be part of the negotiations and will be ‘‘making the tea as always’’.
While he said he had seen reports the pair didn’t get on, he wasn’t convinced that was true.
‘‘We’ve never really come in each other’s way except maybe on the floor of the House. You guys are interviewing your typewriters on it and that’s all good, but actually it’s not about any personality, it’s how you put together a government for New Zealand,’’ Joyce said yesterday.
That was in contradiction to caretaker Defence Minister Mark Mitchell, who does have a good relationship with Peters, who told media that personal relations would be ‘‘critical’’.
‘‘I think the negotiations are going to be based around having good strong personal relations, it’s going to be critical to making a future government work,’’ Mitchell said.
He hadn’t been asked to be part of the negotiation team but would take on the role if his help was needed.
It’s expected caretaker Foreign Affairs Minister Gerry Brownlee would play a lead role in any negotiations.
In the Labour Party camp there’s a suggestion that former deputy prime minister Sir Michael Cullen could be brought in to negotiate with Peters and possibly former Health Minister Annette King. The party’s senior MP, David Parker, knows Peters well but yesterday he said he ‘‘wouldn’t necessarily’’ be involved. ‘‘I’ve got respect for Winston Peters, he’s our longest serving MP and I find him trustworthy.’’