Winston warns it’s now or never
Political reporter Jo Moir spends a day with Winston Peters, who is on a mission to retain his seat and put NZ First in a position to decide the next government.
It’s 10am on Monday and an immaculately dressed Winston Peters has arrived on the main street of Whangarei carrying a supermarket bag for a briefcase.
There’s lots of chat going on in his NZ First office and he yells from out the back, ‘‘hurry up, let’s get this thing going’’.
There’s no official handshaking; the three women here to invite Peters to their equal pay rally could be sitting down with their local publican, that’s how relaxed the whole thing is. Peters wants to know why they’re there and what his role is, if any, in whatever it is they’re organising.
In just five minutes, the women have dithered about whether the word ‘‘rally’’ was the right one to use on their fliers, explained they want people to dress in purple, despite the flier saying red and mentioned NZ First MP Jan Logie (she’s actually a Green Party MP).
In true Peters’ fashion, he throws his hands up in the air and exclaims, ‘‘you’ve got the colour wrong, the name wrong and now the party wrong’’.
The women don’t seem bothered.
Besides, Peters can’t personally make the event, so the best he can offer them is signing their letter calling for equal pay – not before adding a note alongside it telling anyone who reads the letter to read his party’s manifesto as well.
The women joke that they wanted Peters to be there for the flash mob – to dance and sing along to She Works Hard For The Money.
Suddenly, they’re talking about a movie in the New Zealand International Film Festival, Waru, that had its final screening in Whangarei the night prior.
Peters is being told how brilliant the movie was and that he should go see it.
‘‘How can I go see it if last night was the last night?’’
Peters glances over at me, a grin spread a mile wide and mutters, ‘‘this is a very confusing conversation’’.
It’s hard to imagine Peters – arguably, Parliament’s most charismatic and relentless politician – having a black moment of despair.
The 72-year-old leader of NZ First entered politics 39 years ago, but it hasn’t come without dark days. However, it’s Northland, his home and as of 2015 the electorate he represents, that has saved him in those troubling times.
‘‘In all the bad days of my political life, and there’s been some tough days where things weren’t going well, I always had one great thing on my mind. I always had my old boat, which I bought years and years ago on the harbour and I always had Whananaki, where I came from, and right about then I felt a lucky guy.
‘‘So no matter how bad things were ... that was a great thing about being from Whananaki and I’m so pleased I live there now.’’
So what drives Peters to still be in the political game working all hours of the day and night?
‘‘Frankly, of late, I’ve been asking myself that question, because we’re coming to an election and I kind of think it’s now or never.
‘‘If we don’t turn it around ... if you were remotely neutral and you examined New Zealand – where it once was as a country in the Western world to where it is now – you’d have to admit we’ve done very badly,’’ Peters says. So why is he still in politics? ‘‘I still think there’s a chance of turning it over.’’
Peters says he gets credit for ‘‘standing up for what people believe in’’.
‘‘I’m pleased about that – it’s the only reason I bother to be in politics frankly, because I’d seriously like to go horse riding and boating.’’
If things are as bad Peters says they are – his campaign is centred on the notion that New Zealand has fallen victim to a 33-year neo-liberal experiment – then would he choose to retire in this country?
‘‘What a fascinating question,’’ he says, as he mulls an appropriate response as the champion of New Zealand’s senior citizens and the mastermind of the nation’s SuperGold Card.
‘‘Why that question is fascinating is because I see people today who are going to their retirement and if this situation is not changed, they’re going to a much worse place than they think.
‘‘They have no idea how bad it could be. The next blip we have on our economy with the wrong leadership, the first people they’ll come for is all the beneficiaries – starting with superannuitants.’’
‘‘So would it be a nice place to retire to? Sadly, the only reason why you would retire here is the climate and its geography, but not this leadership.’’
With Whangarei ticked off, and its candidate and close mate Shane Jones in the car with him, Peters heads towards Whatitiri where he’s been asked to present 94-yearold Joop Mijnders with a Mobilisation War Cross medal from the Dutch War Office.
Mijnders is very alert for his age and points out what an ‘‘honour’’ it is to have Peters in his home. ‘‘No, it’s my privilege; don’t get it the wrong way round,’’ the politician laughs.
With the medal ceremony wrapped up and the day’s press conference in the bag, Peters is back on the road to Dargaville.
En route, Peters momentarily pulls over and calls me to let me know we’re about to drive past the dairy farm he grew up on that has since been converted to beef.
By the time our small convoy arrives in Dargaville, there’s two farmers waiting to tell Peters about the prioritising of roading work, and how flawed it is. Peters listens intently, scribbles the odd note, but it’s a mention of a foreign-owned company that pricks his ears.
The contracting company carrying out the work is Spanishowned say the constituents and that information to Peters is like candy to a child. The men wrap up their concerns by asking if Peters has got the message?
‘‘Yes, I’ve got the message. That’s all I get around here,’’ quips Peters before he’s off on a walkabout of the main street.
The switch to Jacinda Ardern as leader of the Labour Party less than two months out from the election is no big deal in Peters’ eyes. He was happy to tell media she’d get a 7 per cent, possibly 10, bounce in the first poll (they got 9) but he says the person fronting the party isn’t the problem.
‘‘Let’s be honest, Andrew Little had a seriously solid record as a responsible trade unionist. Nobody can take that away from him at all. Andrew Little had a record of performance that’s better than most people in the Labour Party by a long shot, so what’s changed now?’’
Put Little up against Prime Minister Bill English and Peters says if you’re wondering who is the most interesting, ‘‘it ain’t Bill’’.
Despite his pledge to hold a referendum on whether to keep the Maori seats or abolish them, Peters doesn’t expect a drop in support from Maori. Traditionally, NZ First picks up a lot of the party vote in the Maori seats.
‘‘I still expect to get strong support from Maori because Maori admire people who go straight out and talk the fact as they see it.’’
Asked how he could compete with the ‘‘fresh, young and new Jacinda’’ when he is none of those things – a roar of laughter flew in my direction followed by, ‘‘the truth is always fresh, it’s as fresh as the morning dew’’.
For now, Peters has a campaign to get on with but when it’s all over and he closes the door on politics once and for all, where will he call home? ‘‘I was born in Northland – once a Northlander always a Northlander.’’