Will Peters get away with ‘Nazi’ comments?

Fresh off the plane from touring Asia and straight into the fray of the domestic political debate, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is flexing his authority over this coalition Government.

The NZ First leader has compared the prior Labour government’s co-governance policy to “Nazi Germany”, and questioned the National Party’s sacred promise to voters – tax cuts – in recent days. Opposition leader Chris Hipkins has seized the moment, and has called for Luxon to “haul in” Peters to tell him off for behaving in a way unfit for a deputy leader.

So how long will Prime Minister Christopher Luxon let this go on for? The answer is: as long as Luxon wants the coalition Government to hold. Because this is quintessential Peters strategy, and all indications are he will continue on accordingly. “I’m very comfortable with the coalition agreements, arrangements that we’ve got with each other,” Luxon said at a press conference yesterday.

The past few days have been a study of the NZ First leader’s manner of politics, his long-cultivated political persona of multiple dimensions – the populist rabble-rouser on the campaign trail, the statesman and perennial foreign minister while in Government.

Last week, he travelled to India, Indonesia and Singapore as foreign minister, seeking to forge better ties with each – particularly with India, a key focus of this Government’s foreign policy push.

Back in New Zealand on Saturday, he then walked into the Palmerston North Convention Centre for a rally of NZ First supporters, and gave a speech blasting the usual targets of his 2023 campaign rhetoric – the “culturally woke” opposition parties, and reporters he wrongly alleged took “bribes”.

He said co-governance policies – that Labour was pursuing to give Māori a governance role in the administration of certain public services – was akin to what was seen in “Nazi Germany”, because it was based on “racial preference”.

Luxon, in response, said what he has said previously when Peters has lashed out: “I don’t agree with those comments, that’s not something that I would express ... I don’t think those comments are very helpful”.

He said he would talk to Peters but, it appeared, not necessarily to reprimand him. Instead, it was over a more general concern that “people from all political parties maintain the civility in our politics ... I don’t think extreme language on either side from any particular party is actually helpful or necessary”.

But Peters also sledged his own Government, telling the crowd that Sunday

Star Times columnist Dr Vernon Small was “right” that there was a $5.6 billion gap in the revenue the Government would be able to gather and its campaign promises. And yesterday morning, he continued to put his fellow National Party Cabinet ministers in something of a bind with a version of “I told you so”.

“I said last year, what was going on, that what was being told to the New Zealand people in that campaign in terms of the fiscal health of New Zealand was demonstrably wrong ... it’s no surprise to me that somehow, all of a sudden, we’re talking about a fiscal hole,” he said on RNZ.

He paired the insult of National’s economic credibility with a commitment that tax cuts could only be afforded if the Government followed the right strategy – vague as it may be – essentially lining himself up to claim NZ First the crucial ingredient for success.

Again, Luxon effectively gave Peters a pass. “We’re very comfortable with our coalition agreements with each other. That’s our work plan. That’s what we've agreed to. That's what we’re committed to doing,” he said. “But what we’re trying to signal is that, yes, we’ve got some very challenging economic times ahead of us at the moment. It’s going to be a pretty tough year, I suspect.”

By yesterday afternoon, Peters the statesman sat down with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, welcoming the high-ranking Chinese official to Wellington for the first time since 2017.

Wang, according to translated remarks he gave at the opening of the meeting, said he had been briefed on Peters’ comments to media that morning. He said he agreed with what Peters said – presumably about the coming bilateral meeting, and not the Labour government’s policies or the Government’s tax cut plan.

But foreign policy analysts across the globe could be forgiven for any head scratching that occurs as they try to decode for their leaders the man from New Zealand they are meeting.

Why would Peters run the twin strategy so assertively, and so early, in this Government’s term?

So the ultimate aim for Peters and his party this term is to make sure they don’t get knocked down again. That means keeping current with those who voted for him in 2023, so they’ll return in 2026. And if it means chipping away at the façade the National Party has built, he will.