Peters packs away his cigarettes and prepares for battle
With just 10 weeks until the election Winston Peters is preparing for the fight of his life - he’s even quit smoking for it.
The NZ First leader is sitting pretty as his party surges in the polls.
Known to traditionally leave his run to a few weeks out from an election, the current 11 per cent his party’s consistently polling at has the seasoned politician grinning like a Cheshire cat - not to mention a recent poll had him second in line for preferred prime minister, behind Bill English.
The 72-year-old will expect a sizeable audience in Auckland when he takes the stage tomorrow to deliver his speech at the party’s annual conference.
The party pulled big numbers at the same event last year despite it being held in the depths of Dunedin, so the combination of holding this year’s in the country’s biggest city and it being an election year may lead to record crowds.
Peters is aiming for 300 today and more tomorrow.
He’s managed to secure mental health advocate Mike King as a guest speaker to talk about what Peters said was a ‘‘serious issue’’.
‘‘I want him to tell us what the people who think like him, the people on the street, what they think and what they want us to do as a party,’’ Peters said.
Holding the party conference in the middle of winter doesn’t come without its obstacles - in this case the two other speakers planned for the event are unlikely to make it because of travel cancellations.
As for policy announcements, there’s going to be some ‘‘seriously big ones’’ but there’s no hints on what exactly.
Over the summer break, Peters took time to recharge - something he does rarely.
He said he was going to get fit in preparation for a big 2017.
Peters’ boot camp has extended to kicking old habits after he decided a couple of months ago to go cold turkey and quit smoking.
He had no interest discussing why he quit - ‘‘this is a line of inquiry I’m not willing to facilitate’’. However, he did write in a press release earlier this month that he no longer smoked and conceded it was all about being fit and ready for the campaign trail.
‘‘I’m not getting fit and ready, I am fit and ready. That’s why I’ve just done a 15-day arduous trip 24/7 around this country,’’ he said.
While this weekend’s events will be all about Peters there will be another act in the wings - the first big public appearance of Shane Jones, the party’s newly appointed Whangarei candidate and widely touted future leader.
All eyes will be on whether he and deputy leader Ron Mark can play nice and whether Jones can keep himself in Peters’ shadow.