Peters steers away from attacking Labour
AUCKLAND: New Zealand First leader Winston Peters appears to have changed his campaign tactics, shifting his focus from attacking Labour to embracing the wins of the coalition.
Speaking to a socially distanced crowd in Auckland's Aotea Square yesterday afternoon, Mr Peters’ tone was noticeably different when talking about his coalition partners.
‘‘During the last three years, we have run a very sound, competent Government and we have made huge investments in areas that have been neglected,’’ he said.
He cited the work of the coalition Government after the March 15 terror attack, the
WhakaariWhite Island eruption and the Covid19 pandemic.
‘‘We handled it together as a government — it was a combined effort.’’
This is in stark contrast to some of his recent comments in public meetings.
Two weeks ago, he referred to Labour as the ‘‘other side’’ when he was attacking some of its moves in Government, such as KiwiBuild and its light rail plans.
On numerous occasions, he has taken credit for making sure the capital gains tax did not make it into law.
And in a speech at his party’s campaign launch, he took aim at the inexperience of both Labour and the Greens.
’’We have opposed woke pixie dust,’’ he said at the time, before adding that New Zealand First had been ‘‘a handbrake for silly ideas’’.
Although he did take a quick swipe at KiwiBuild yesterday, he was more focused on the ‘‘smart ideas’’ his party brought to the coalition table and did not mention any ‘‘silly ideas’’.
Mr Peters’ apparent change in rhetoric comes after a string of bad poll results for his party.
In the most recent 1NewsColmar Brunton poll, NZ First was on 1%.
The party was on a similar level of support on the NewshubReid Research poll released a day before.
It has been more than a year since NZ First has publicly polled at or above 5%, the level the party needs to get back into Parliament.
Speaking to media after his speech, Mr Peters rejected any suggestion he was not allowed to be critical of Labour’s time in Government.
‘‘The thing that you are imputing is that somehow if we criticise our coalition partner then we have been disloyal or uncooperative. That’s nonsense.’’
Asked specifically about why he shifted tack, he said: ‘‘We're all in this campaign, campaigning for the market share of politics for our party.’’