Goodbye Maori seats – NZ First

Winston Peters promised ‘‘explosive policy’’ at his party’s convention yesterday but it was a tried and true pledge of referenda on abolishing the Maori seats and reducing the number of MPs that he delivered.

In addition, the NZ First leader set out reducing immigration to a ‘‘sensible and sustainable’’ level of 10,000 and bringing the country’s banks back into Kiwi ownership – starting with making KiwiBank the Government’s official trading bank.

He also hinted at not building any more prisons and making inmates do hard labour six days a week. However, when pressed on whether that was policy, he said it was still a work in progress.

About 600 NZ First supporters turned up at the Vodafone Events Centre in South Auckland to hear Peters’ pitch for being in Government after the September 23 election.

He kicked off by attacking the National Party, in particular Building and Construction Minister Nick Smith’s housing policy, followed by criticisms of the country’s ‘‘volatile currency’’ and poverty affecting the lives of so many Kiwis.

‘‘Some of us know what poverty smells, tastes and feels like. Some of us have been there in the past.’’

Speaking after his speech, Peters said the size of Parliament needed to reduce. In a 1999 referendum, 80 per cent of the country wanted to reduce the overall number of MPs but it wasn’t binding. ‘‘The public should be asked again now whether they want 120 or 100 [politicians].’’ A binding referendum on the two matters would be held on the same day in the middle of the next election term.

Peters said both issues were ‘‘explosive’’ but, in particular, the Maori seats because ‘‘Maori progress economically and socially has been massively sidetracked, detoured and roadblocked by the Waitangi industry’’.

‘‘How could that possibly happen when we’ve got all these new members of Parliament coming from the Maori world?’’

Peters said he wouldn’t use ‘‘silly phrases’’ such as ‘‘bottom lines’’ but he made it clear the referendum wasn’t negotiable.

‘‘My strategy is to tell everybody out there that you won’t be talking to NZ First unless you want a referendum on both those issues at the mid-term mark of this election.’’

He said the roughly $27 million to hold the referenda would be money well spent – far better than that ‘‘wasted flag exercise’’.

Asked whether he would be constrained by the Government’s current spending limits, Peters said you had to ‘‘take the plus and the minus’’. ‘‘I might spend far less in some areas as well. For example, I’m not going to build any more prisons, no; I’ll have them out there doing hard labour six times a week.’’

Peters told supporters his party spent less than any other on getting the country’s vote. ‘‘It almost should be on our CV and resume for running the economy,’’ he said.

Stability, or a lack of, was a popular theme in his speech with one-line zingers including, ‘‘this Government reeks of instability from the very top all the way down to Todd Barclay’’ – a dig at the National backbencher who has been forced to resign over a recording of a staff member in his Clutha-Southland office.

Peters’ interview with media was interrupted several times by members of his youth wing yelling ‘‘Make New Zealand great again’’. Yet when asked if he thought using a Donald Trump slogan was helpful, Peters said he had never heard Trump say that. He talked about a ‘‘great political upset coming’’ and signed off with a promise – ‘‘we will be, most definitely, the Government’’.

Winston Peters could sleep his way through the next nine weeks and people would still vote for him.

The seasoned politician has one advantage in the lead-up to the September 23 election that no other party leader has – absolutely no need for an election strategy.

Why? Because what Peters is pitching is no different to the message he has been selling voters for decades. It explains why he doesn’t discuss policy until the moment he delivers it – it’s not uncommon for him to just do it on the hoof – because when your messaging doesn’t change you don’t need a whole lot of prep time.

His ‘‘explosive policy’’ yesterday amounted to a binding referendum on abolishing Maori seats and reducing the number of MPs in Parliament.

The anti-establishment, fakenews-hating politician was pricking the ears of disenfranchised voters (I’m looking at you, National and Labour) long before US President Donald Trump started spouting ‘‘Make America Great Again’’.

Peters was the cat who got the cream from start of his party’s annual conference in South Auckland over the weekend.

If NZ First can keep clear of any brain-fart moments in the next two months, there’s no doubt Peters will collect the Kingmaker crown.

Keeping one’s house in order is no easy task for any political party but that dirty laundry is even more likely to get aired when there’s an election at stake.

National is still batting away Todd Barclay headlines – mainly because Prime Minister Bill English and his office haven’t worked out how to wash their hands of the first-term MP who was forced to resign after it was revealed he recorded a staffer.

Labour suffered a foreign intern scheme embarrassment amidst the Barclay chaos – how they didn’t make hay when the sun was shinning is anyone’s guess.

Then the Greens let their rookie MP Barry Coates blub to the media about how their caucus doesn’t want to govern with NZ First so much that the party would allow a second election to happen.

They say a week is a long time in politics so nine weeks will feel like an eternity for the country. If NZ First can hold it together long enough, Peters and his crew might just have a bunch of Cabinet positions to show for it.