NZ First leader holds cards close on deals
''The two old parties do not have the answer to this country's future."
NZ First leader Winston Peters
In a position to decide who will be in the next government, NZ First leader Winston Peters was giving nothing away on Sunday morning.
‘‘Nobody quite knows what the [election] result last night means,’’ Peters told reporters in Russell.
Special votes were still to be counted, ‘‘so things could change marginally’’.
‘‘In the meantime we’ve just got to wait and see what that means, and talk to my colleagues over the next few days and then we’ll tell you what we’re going to be prepared to do.’’
Peters said he had not received any calls from other party leaders. If he got a call from National leader Bill English on Sunday he would ‘‘confront that when the time comes’’.
‘‘Let’s stop the mirage and the facade here.
‘‘We all know what has to happen, OK.
‘‘So all this talk about making phone calls and talking to you people [reporters] about what am I going to do next will not be happening from NZ First’s point of view,’’ Peters said.
‘‘We know what we’ve got to do responsibly. We’re going to talk as a political party, as a caucus and as a board, and when we’ve made our decision we’ll then start talking to other people about what we might do.’’
He described Māori Party leader Te Ururoa Flavell, who lost his seat, as ‘‘a marvellous New Zealander’’.
‘‘He’s your classic kind of person you need in this country, a million-fold, but I think some of his political ideas were mistaken,’’ Peters said.
‘‘His politics was the kind of politics from the sociology department of the University of Auckland ... It’s actually trash for Māori. It won’t help Māori, and that’s why in the end it went down.’’
Peters accused reporters of running a ‘‘first past the post campaign in an MMP environment’’ and complained about a lack of coverage of his activities around the country.
‘‘Things suffer for that, and I’m just grateful that we survived it,’’ he said.
‘‘This is an MMP environment and the two old parties do not have the answer to this country’s future.’’
The election had got ‘‘rid of a whole lot of puppets, and propups’’ and questionable arrangements between parties.
The Māori Party and UnitedFuture had been propped up by the National Party, he said.
He criticised ACT, saying it was ‘‘on three-quarters of a million dollars a year, the most expensive beneficiary in the whole country’’.
He mocked ACT leader David Seymour: ‘‘The other day he said he was going to take one for the team ... He’s only one, he’s going to take one for the team, what team would that be?’’
Declining to give any information about what his bottom lines might be in any negotiations about forming a government, he said: ‘‘Negotiating is about getting all you possibly can get for the people that voted for you, and that means that you’ve got to be smart, and clever, and determined and resolute.
‘‘The last thing you do is start playing your cards before you get to the table.’’
Asked if he wanted to be deputy prime minister, he said: ‘‘I’ve been there and done that.’’
About his loss of the seat of Northland he suggested the voters of the electorate had reverted to tradition.
‘‘I gave it my best shot. It’s a terrible shame I think in a way because we asked Northland to take hold of New Zealand’s political attention and give them some service for all those years of being loyal to the National Party,’’ Peters said.
‘‘They made a decision, I can’t change that. I was very privileged for a brief time to be their MP but now I’ve got more time to be an MP around the country.’’