What is the legacy Winston Peters will leave his country?

affairs minister, bearing in mind his frequent jingoistic and xenophobic gibes about anyone from one of our main markets, Asia. I asked one of her colleagues why; she told me that it was better to have him overseas as foreign affairs minister than getting under her feet in New Zealand – good thinking, Helen.

Another MP who must surely be competing with Peters for the title of grandfather of the House is Peter Dunne, MP for Ohariu in the northern suburbs of Wellington. Dunne has never sought headlines, has never resorted to abusing other members of the house and has often been kingmaker. He is an excellent yard- run-up to the 2002 elections. As the leader of his new party, UnitedFuture, he made a particularly strong showing in the televised debates where the worm took off whenever he spoke. His party finished up with 6.69 per cent of the vote and came into the house with eight members. This time he supported Helen Clark’s Labour government and was appointed a minister outside of Cabinet.

The most dangerous thing I’ve ever seen him do is to ‘‘plank’’ on live TV after several young people had died doing it. I think he was making the point that ‘‘planking’’ was perfectly all right if you are sober. Before coming into Parliament he had been deputy chief executive of the Alcoholic Liquor Advisory Council [ALAC], so presumably he knew what he was talking about.

Since 1990 he has held several ministerial portfolios outside Cabinet, mainly as minister of Inland Revenue. Three of these terms were under Labour prime ministers and two under National PMs; quite a feat and without any of the histrionics we’ve seen with Peters in similar roles. He just gets on with the job, philosophically sitting in the Centre ground – he was aligned with Roger Douglas at one time. He is seen as a safe pair of hands by the prime ministers I’ve spoken to about him. Now that is a real endorsement and I’m sure he is privately proud of his achievements.

When you compare his performance with that of Peters it becomes glaringly obvious that Dunne has served his country with distinction and to the best of his ability while Peters has achieved very little apart from grabbing headlines and being totally divisive.

I have worked as an MP with both of these gentlemen and if I had to choose between offers to join them for a drink, I’d have no hesitation in joining Dunne; politician extraordinaire.