Will Peters run in 2023 poll?
NZ First leader Winston Peters is leaving his options open. The 76-year-old is not ruling out a run for election in 2023 – as long as his party members still want him.
After NZ First’s annual meeting at the weekend, Peters sketched out the preconditions of his return to the campaign trail, saying it was ‘‘up to the membership’’ and ‘‘up to the preparedness of everyone involved, including myself’’.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern opened the door to working with NZ First in government again but suggested the party had a long way to go before that became a possibility.
‘‘There were a lot of things that we did not agree on but there were a lot of things we did – and we got good things done,’’ Ardern said at the post-Cabinet press conference yesterday.
‘‘I have never been in the position of ruling in or out those existing parties that I have worked with before because I have demonstrated that I could work with them.’’
She added that ‘‘it seems like a very big hypothetical for NZ First’’.
‘‘There are a number of stages before that even becomes a relevant consideration,’’ she said.
In his first speech since NZ First was ejected from Parliament in last year’s election, when the party dropped from nine to zero MPs, Peters told members ‘‘we are coming back’’ and attributed the drubbing to the pandemic.
‘‘We all know what happened. It was a Covid election, which dominates everything,’’ Peters said at the party’s annual meeting in East Auckland, suggesting this was the reason for Labour’s big win and NZ First’s big loss.
He was silent on what his own role in future campaigns would be – but he certainly did not suggest that he was himself going anywhere.
Peters spoke over the weekend about some of NZ First’s disagreements with Labour over issues like Ihuma¯tao, the clean-car discount, and light rail in Auckland – areas that NZ First stopped from progressing last term.
Peters also alleged Labour had stopped NZ First from seeing the He Puapua report, which was prepared last term but has only recently come into the spotlight.
‘‘This report was deliberately suppressed,’’ Peters said, calling it a ‘‘recipe for Ma¯ori separatism’’.