Palmy, Peters show pulling power
NZ First leader may be seasoned but he’s far from rusty
Septic tank emptier. Crime scene cleaner. Cow inseminator. They are not exactly appealing jobs but I also wouldn’t want to have the role of predicting how many Manawatu¯ people will turn up to listen to a visiting politician.
I was surprised Act leader David Seymour attracted about 450 people last July. It was a bigger crowd than National leader Christopher Luxon drew in September.
It was hard to work out exactly how many people turned out on Sunday to hear New Zealand First leader and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters but I would say about 700.
Peters said there were more than 600 seats set out in the Elwood Room of the Palmerston North Conference and Function Centre. There was standing room only and that included people standing directly behind the table set aside for the Press Gallery journalists and in the small foyer that leads into the room.
At one stage, people put chairs in front of an emergency exit door. Centre staff told them to move but some men did end up standing in front of the door, at one stage leaning on it and causing it to open.
Peters visited Palmerston North on September 16, during last year’s election campaign. He has frequently commented — including on Sunday — that the media did not cover his campaign meetings. As far as I’m aware no media covered his Palmy visit but Radio New Zealand did cover his Levin one.
I didn’t cover it as Luxon visited on the Sunday and I decided one politician a weekend was enough.
The upshot of all this navel-gazing is I don’t know how big a crowd Peters attracted last year. Newshub reported in October 2020 Peters “struggled to pull in a couple of dozen supporters for a Palmerston North meeting”. How times have changed. With the New Zealand Herald, Newstalk ZB, Stuff, Radio New Zealand, 1News, Newshub and veteran political reporter Richard Harman covering Peters’ State of the Nation on Sunday I turned my mind to CRC.
Not the toolkit in a can because despite Peters being the same age as my mother he clearly isn’t rusty, but Commend, Recommend, Commend.
It’s the technique Toastmasters uses to evaluate speeches, more colloquially known as a s*** sandwich. It was my favourite part of being a Toastmaster.
Peters has been giving political speeches since I was at primary school so I was expecting a polished performance.
He spoke for an hour — an accomplishment in itself given he had returned the day before from visiting Singapore, Indonesia and India as Foreign Minister.
Peters varied his volume and rate of delivery, paused for applause, looked serious when he was angry and twinkled at his own jokes.
My recommendation is he could have made more mention of Palmerston North, other than twice referring to it being a university city. Yes, the speech was billed as the State of the Nation but us regionalites love lapping up a few bouquets. Even if Peters made mention of the weather, which was perfect.
Back to commendations. Peters didn’t let his notes distract him, he didn’t over-gesticulate and made good use of rhetorical questions.
There were no dreadful fillers that waste precious seconds.
There were also some great phrases such as “who gives a rat’s derriere”, “escalators of education” and “Ned Kelly robbing Ned Kelly”.
Peters didn’t ask for questions. No doubt this would have been entertaining but hard to manage with such a large crowd.
These jottings are not about whether I agree with any or all of what Peters said but rather my views on his delivery.
The speech — and by extension where it was delivered — has certainly attracted national media attention. So why did New Zealand First choose Palmy?
A spokesman for Peters said: “We try to get good regional coverage and we like visiting Palmerston North”.
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