Policy before top posts — Peters

Process ‘much more complex than I originally thought’

New Zealand First will today begin its deliberations to choose the next Government before any discussion about ministerial posts, leader Winston Peters says.

“If you don’t have an agreement on policy then that becomes irrelevant,” he told Newstalk ZB.

“If you do have an agreement on policy and direction and things like that, then that may well kick in at that point in time.”

He also said the process had been far more complex than he had originally thought it would be.

Peters said he worked over the weekend ahead of the caucus and board meeting in Wellington today to firm up the precise agreements with National and Labour, and contact with them had been “reasonably extensive”.

But there had been no discussion on ministerial positions and he made it clear he wants the decision to be made without reference to them.

“The danger of these sorts of talks is when people get ahead of themselves and concern themselves with positions and preferment and things like that and policy gets sacrificed on the way through.

“The last thing we want is for that to happen. That’s the fact. We have not talked about it to anybody.”

The meeting, nine members of the caucus and 12 members of the board, would have an enormous amount of information to sort through, Peters said.

“If we need any further information we have the capacity to quickly call up and sort it out.”

Peters said the decision was unique and complex in his political career.

“I’ve never had a decision to make like this in the context of the potential positive side of it.

“I’ve had to make decisions in my career which have been ‘I’m not going to accept this and I’m going to have to leave and I’m going to have to make a stand here’.”

But because of peculiar circumstance it was an extraordinarily awkward and complex situation, which he might be able to explain better in the future.

“It has been much more complex than I originally thought before the election and on election night,” he said.

Party president Brent Catchpole said he would be approaching the contest evenly.

“The biggest factor in my mind at the moment is an open mind — keeping it open for everything to be discussed.”

And the quality of the deal, rather than the politics of any choice, would be the biggest factor for him. “It’s a big task,” he told the Herald. He defended his decision to withhold the names of the board members — even though such information has traditionally been freely available.

“It came down to the pressure,” he said. “I asked members of the board if they wanted to have their names distributed and quite a number of them said no. It was either all or nothing. So I said no.”

Peters has said the decision had to be made by an overwhelming consensus of the group.

He has not put a deadline on the decision — but it could run until tomorrow.

The Green Party is expected to hold a special meeting by conference call this morning to approve the confidence and supply deal it has negotiated for a Labour-led government.

Meanwhile former New Zealand First MP Pita Paraone yesterday expressed doubt that his party would support a deal that included setting up the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary without first resolving Maori fishing rights. The Herald on Sunday reported that one of the Green Party claims in its talks is to get the stalled sanctuary back on the table.