PM won’t back down from Peters

Prime Minister Bill English won’t call Winston Peters’ attack on two journalists ‘‘racist’’ because he says that’s exactly the reaction the NZ First leader is looking for.

In a press release on Wednesday, Peters vented his anger at an NZME story by reporters Lincoln Tan and Harkanwal Singh. The article explored data on which countries were most likely to be affected by proposed changes in immigration rules.

He described the pair as ‘‘Asian immigrants’’ writing ‘‘propaganda’’.

Peters argued that the main source countries for work visas are Asian countries – ‘‘not the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, South Africa, and the United States as The Herald so erroneously and irresponsibly claims. ‘‘Quite clearly they don’t mind creating confusion and spreading misinformation’’.

English said Peters had been ‘‘using this kind of method for a long time’’ and it was designed to ‘‘get attention’’.

Asked whether Peters’ comments were racist, he said ‘‘that’s the reaction he’s looking for frankly so I’m not going to say it’’.

Labour leader Andrew Little also weighed in, labelling Peters ‘‘out of order’’ for his attack. He sprung to the reporters’ defence, saying while Tan ‘‘doesn’t always give me a great run’’, he’s an ‘‘accurate, honest’’ journalist.

Yesterday Peters said, unlike Labour, ‘‘I have the courage to go on with my allegations and commitments and what I say’’.

‘‘It’s not personal ... but when I see two journalists, both of which are immigrants, making statements that are not true, either they’re dumb ... or they’re being deceitful ... but those figures shout the very reverse to what they’re saying.’’