Leader accused of poaching bid

NZ First leader Winston Peters says National Party leader Simon Bridges tried to convince Ron Mark to join National.

However, Bridges has completely rejected the claim.

Peters made the claim on

Newstalk ZB yesterday morning while talking about the need for the clause in his party’s constitution which threatens MPs with a $300,000 penalty if they resign from the party but do not leave Parliament itself.

‘‘The leader of the National Party, Simon Bridges, has been talking to members of my caucus about how they might jump the ship and stay on, doing a deal with them,’’ Peters said.

‘‘This is how bad and how rotten it is,’’ Peters told Newstalk ZB.

Peters said Minister of Defence Ron Mark was the target of Bridges’ appeals.

‘‘He’s been witnessed saying: look come on Ron, let’s just do a deal. You can have Wairarapa,’’ Peters told Newstalk ZB.

‘‘In short he was talking about dumping his local MP called [Alastair] Scott.’’

Bridges told Stuff this was utterly untrue.

‘‘This is yet more fake news from Winston Peters,’’ Bridges said.

Mark himself said the event happened on a flight in May.

‘‘Simon and I were next to each other on a flight from Auckland to Wellington in May.

‘‘He brought it up out of the blue during a conversation we were having,’’ Mark said.

‘‘NZ First doesn’t do deals, so I didn’t entertain the thought further.’’

If it was keen, National would need to lure at least four NZ First MPs to be able to retake the Government benches.

They will not be able to if the waka jumping legislation is passed when the House next sits in September.

If they did before then, they could be liable for the $300,000 penalty.

Peters believed the penalty was essential to make sure that MPs who jumped ship from a party that got them into Parliament could not then join another party and subvert the wishes of voters.

Several NZ First MPs have left during their parliamentary terms.

At one point in the late 1990s they even formed a new party called Mauri Pacific, which kept the National Party in Government. In the same interview with

Newstalk ZB, Peters claimed that all National MPs had to sign an agreement, before trying to become candidates, guaranteeing they would not stand for other parties.

A spokesman for Bridges said this was demonstrably false – pointing to the fact that NZ First MP Mark Patterson once applied to become the National Party candidate for Clutha Southland, and Peters himself was once a National Party MP.