Winston Peters is a complex man whose sense of identity has always seemed fraught.
There is a well known myth about Winston that when he was at University he would claim to be Italian rather then be identified as Māori.
Which is difficult to believe when you look at Winston’s early political life…
Peters entered national politics in 1975 general election, standing unsuccessfully for the National Partyin the electorate seat of Northern Maori; he gained 1,873 votes, and became the first National candidate in a Māori seat for some[quantify] years who did not lose his deposit.[22] This followed a successful campaign by Peters and other members of his Ngati Wai iwi to retain their tribal land in the face of the Labour government‘s plan to establish coastal-land reserves for the public. As a result, the government of the day took virtually no ancestral land in the Whangarei coastal areas,
…he stood in a Māori electorate and he fought for Māori land rights.
That was his genesis. That is how we should remember him.
What is to be said about this sad, desperate Orewa speech?
His ugly attempt to turn NZ against Māori over the Ihumātao solution is beneath Winston.
The fear mongering bigotry Winston is attempting here won’t find the fertile reactionary soil that Brash sparked because thankfully the naked racism that Brash harnessed has been dissipated by new generations of better natured Kiwis.
The fear of Māori that Brash cashed in on doesn’t hold the hearts of our people as tightly as it did 2 decades ago so Winston has employed a spiteful attack that won’t even bear him the embarrassment of a wretched harvest.
How sad to see Winston stoop this low.
Winston has always wanted to be respected by the NZ establishment but they’ve never given that to him, so he turned to those Kiwis cheated by neoliberalism and his rogue nature could be justified when it was fighting for them.
Sadly in his later career, his rogue nature has ended up fighting not for for NZ First, but for Winston First.
How deeply disappointing for such a political maverick to end up so basic bitch predictable.
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Winston Peters has actually followed a consistent set of principles throughout his career. The first is that, in consequence of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Realm of New Zealand is a monarchical state under the sovereign authority of the British Crown. From this fact derives his belief in the rightful cultural precedence in New Zealand of people of British and Maori descent.
Secondly, he believes in the rights of property, which includes the right of Maori to enjoy undisturbed possession of their lands. That was the basis on which he fought for the rights of his iwi – not as Maori, but as New Zealand citizens.
That is also the two-fold source of his objection to the demand that Ihumatao become a national reserve.
First, because it appears to offend against the property rights of Fletcher Residential.
Second because it challenges the notion that Queen Elizabeth in respect of the Realm of New Zealand is the one and only legitimate sovereign authority in this land.
So what Peters is doing, and has always done, is act as though everything that has ever been said by the Realm (indeed, the colonial regime in its entirety) can be and should be taken at face value and applied with strict rigor.
That is the tragedy of Winston Peters. He truly believes everything he was taught about and by the colonial regime, while for his erstwhile colleagues in the National Party, and his current allies in the Labour and Green Parties, the notion of equal rights under British rule is mere cant, a useful fraud and convenient deception. That is one reason why Winston has had such a fractious relationship with the rest of the political establishment, and the mass media.
If the need is there and the call is made I will fight for Ihumatao to become what it was, is, and will be – the sacrosanct founding place of our nation. I will fight against Winston Peters, and Jacinda Ardern, and any whose aim is to desecrate our land in the name of commerce. I will fight for mana motuhake, rangatiratanga, and kotahitanga. This last implies that at the heart of it I will not really be fighting against Winston Peters, or, for that matter, Jacinda Ardern. I will be fighting for a nation that has never practised the hypocrisy, servility to foreign powers, gross inequity and hedonistic materialism of the Realm of New Zealand. A nation that has a place for Winston and Jacinda, even if they would have allowed no place for us.
I will fight for mana motuhake, rangatiratanga, and kotahitanga..yes I too will fight for this, we have to, as we now have nothing to lose. thank you for this.
I don’t believe this is the last chapter for WP. He still has a few weeks left to fully scrape the bottom of the barrel so we can expect an even bigger final twist.
Everything Peters has been doing for the last few months is a reflection of his frustration and desperation.
He hoped the success’s of the Government would carry NZF back into Parliament so he was happy to ride coattails with the rising tide lifts all ships mindset in play. Then came the 18th May Newshub poll that changed everything. It was the exact same poll that signaled the end of Simon Bridges.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/05/newshub-reid-research-poll-simon-bridges-still-confident-he-will-lead-national-into-election-despite-personal-poll-ratings-below-5-percent.html
Many were so focused on Bridges / Nationals numbers that they overlooked the 2.7 that NZF were sitting at. Winston Peters certainly didn’t miss it. Ironically, ACT was at 1.8 in that same poll.
Peters recognized he was gone but more importantly, his legacy was also gone (his party) and him now zero hope of resurrecting it in the future. He had to do something. Winston is not known for owning his own shit. It’s always someone else to blame. He decided it was Labours fault so immediately set about distancing himself from them. Opening a bubble with Australia “yesterday” was his first attempt at that power play. He ridiculed Labour and Ardern at every opportunity in the desperate hope he would appeal to ACT and National voters. That’s been an epic fail so his desperation grows more each day. His Orewa speech was just another step down that self inflicted path lined with ….excrement.
Peters choice of pathways has been easily the worst of his career. No voters want him and no party will want to work with him regardless of circumstances. In the extremely unlikely scenario that Labour are unable to Govern after next month, the Kingmaker with all the power will be David Seymour which is diabolical news for NZ. Great news for National and the gun lobby but devastating for our country. David Seymour looking to have secured that position right out of Peters tight grasp will be like sucking turds through a straw for WP. Ultimately, it won’t matter a tinkers toss anyway as Labour will Govern alone for certain.
Peters final fling will result his well past it’s use by date Orewa speech being quickly forgotten.
Peters and NZF were still a chance to get back into parliament had he boxed smart. If that had failed, he would have lost with grace and dignity and been able to look back on his elder statesman political career with some pride. I’m certain he would have also become Sir Winston in the upcoming New Years honours. Instead, he will be remembered as a bitter and revengeful man who lost the respect of kiwis he once enjoyed and was the sole architect of his own implosion.
beautiful!! he never even saw it coming did he and that’s ffn karma working
Peters shut Bill English out. Look how the landscape has changed with that.
Bennett, Adams, Tolley, etc. etc. etc. gone.
Shout out to Paula Bennett or whoever or whoever’s staff for Peter’s private information being released. We would have been heading into a fourth term of a National Government.
He has certainly had a profound impact on our politics.
YUP and he enabled the Labour led Coalition Government!…and saved us from another nine years of Nactional
(….although you wouldnt know it from all the anti Winston Peters dumb arse comments you get on this blog site)
So glad I dont follow this circus anymore. I await nz strump, as ja is our oboma. U watch.
“the naked racism that Brash harnessed has been dissipated by new generations of better natured Kiwis.”
HaHaHa – is that a joke?
Once an MP retires that should be it, end of. Nowadays it seems all an MP has to do is hold a press conference for an hour to make it sound like the policy gears are moving and change is possible.
Sadly, naked racism is on common display throughout NZ; a blatant example recently endorsed by Adern, Little, the Labour party, sundry woke academics, the Otago Medical school & a few DHBs include the lie that we are different under the skin & that people of a different colour should be treated differently with respect to medical training opportunities & treatment priorities (the latter relegating their medical case secondary to their ethnicity). The medical profession apparently take the Hypocritic oath instead of the Hippocratic oath nowadays.
Brash & Winston are colourblind in their demand for “one law for all”. Their opponents are not.
NZ First’s basic tenet of ‘one law for all’ doesn’t hold water. More was paid out in one week of NZ Wage Subsidy 2020 than in 25 years of Treaty of Waitangi negotiations. Even adjusting for the indigenous people who may have received the wage subsidy, this still means that the government does have access to public funds and is willing to distribute it to non Maori with a likelihood 1100 times that of Maori (we’re talking about redress for 250 years of colonialism here versus propping up a fraudulent pawn shop for a few months during lockdown). NZ First’s claim that the land was bought fairly at Ihumatao is also dubious, this is like saying any sacred cultural site is up for negotiation (maybe bulldoze Aboriginal caves for mining or divvy up the Western Wall or Pyramids of Giza for mid density residential dwellings with off street parking). Winston’s Orewa thesis, that recognising Ihumatao would encourage relitigation for previous Tiriti negotiations (the ‘backward looking Maori’), is probably correct. And so the government should revisit the pittance paid. A non Maori is worth a thousand times the indigenous citizen in Aotearoa, really?
Arron Banks and his bad boys of Brexit are out and about called in by Peters though doubtless have worked out by now that their interests lie with ACT.
Their influence is chilling both in the USA and UK.
Thanks Winston.
It Ian only be hopes that we still have a democracy within five years.
Winston Peters needs to step down now and pass over the reigns to another NZF MP, preferably Tracey Martin. He’s done his time and his present outbursts, along with not answering questions put to him, playing stupid games, is alienating him as well as the NZF party. He’s become predictable and boring. Seems NZers are over him and his nonsense.
BTW when is the outcome of the NZ First Foundation SFO investigation to be released? I thought it had been completed.
Interesting how some have an anticipation stone in their shoe about the NZ First Foundation SFO investigation. What chance they did not wangle the rules satisfactorily to get around the intent of the rules?
Interesting how not many have an anticipation stone in their shoe about the National Party donations court case. Putting it off into the distance has served them well. What chance they did not wangle rules satisfactorily in many instances to get around the intent of the rules?
“His ugly attempt to turn NZ against Māori over the Ihumātao solution is beneath Winston.” Martyn Bradbury.
Rather than being ‘beneath Winston’, this ‘ugly attempt’ more accurately sums up, the rise, the apogee and descent, of Winston Peters political career.
As Taika Waititi famously said “New Zealand is racist as fuck”.
Despite being Maori himself, Winston Peters has proved himself to be a skilled opportunist in tapping into the strong vein of racism in this white majority country.
When his political chips are down, Winston Peters has always played the race card. And is able to get away with it, by going where going where no white politician dare go.
Winston Peters did it when his party New Zealand First was founded. and couldn’t find any political traction, registering no more than 2% in the polls.
Winston Peters first racist campaign was targeting Asians. Immediately from 2% NZ First poll numbers jumped to 7%.
Since this early success in exploiting white racist sentiment targetting Asians, Peters has broadened his targets to include Maori.
Don Brash is the other major political figure in this country to opportunistically exploit racist Pakeha sentiment for political gain, but with less success.
Before settling on targeting Maori, Don Brash first racist political campaign was attacking Asian immigrants.
Just as Winston Peters claimed he couldn’t be racist against Maori, because he was Maori. Using a similar tactic, Don Brash, though he wasn’t Asian himself, claimed he couldn’t be racist against Asians because his wife was Asian.
Like Brash, Peters has misread the mood of the country and is doomed to join Brash on the political sidelines.
Winston Peters didn’t start his racist campaigns with the Asians – his ‘anti-Maori’ racism stood him in good stead with the ‘racist as fuck’ pale electorate of Tauranga decades ago.
While not agreeing with Winston there are a number of valid questions that need to be answered to clarify the direction the country will go if Labour are given a free reign. Free speech , restriction on farmers and miners , roading , RMA , Ihumatao to name a few.
Peters is old school Muldoonist National. His actions have generally been consistent with the idea of putting New Zealanders’ interests *first*. As opposed to multinationals and lobby groups. As a lawyer he sees the Ihumatao occupation as undermining the rule of law and the achievements of decades of Treaty negotiations. He’s never been a fan of the “grievance industry”, preferring to encourage Maori to stand up and take their place in society.
Ihumatao calls into question the Treaty settlement process as grossly inadequate and an attempt to whitewash the past, but Peters sees it as divisive victim culture. Time for the old guard to finally step aside as times have changed. Peters is a complex and compromised figure (politics does that) but deep down I think there’s a core of decency
The best articulation of Winston’s philosophy is this article by Josh Van Veen. There is an elite class that controls Western society, but is not loyal to it.
https://democracyproject.nz/2020/07/19/josh-van-veen-winstons-road-to-somewhere/
As I walk this land with broken dreams
I have visions of many things
But happiness is just an illusion
Filled with sadness and confusion
What becomes of the broken-hearted
Who had love that’s now departed?
I know I’ve got to find
Some kind of peace of mind
Maybe
The roots of love grow all around
But for me they come a-tumblin’ down
Every day heartaches grow a little stronger
I can’t stand this pain much longer
I walk in shadowsm searching for light
Cold and alone, no comfort in sight
Hoping and praying for someone to care
Always moving and goin’ nowhere
What becomes of the broken-hearted
Who had love that’s now departed?
I know I’ve got to find
Some kind of peace of mind
Help me
I’m searching, though I don’t succeed
But someone look, there’s a growing need
Oh,…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5I6m7rJr88
Why does professional liar Peters get so much attention when truth-distributer Assange gets almost none? Why is slippery-as-an-eel Peters, who hopped about like a rabbit looking for personal advantage, get praise when straight-as-a-die Assange gets none?
Could it be that we live in a corrupt empire and Peters has served the empire well, whereas Assange has proven to be a great threat to the empire?
‘What’s the Difference Between ‘Villain’ Assange & ‘Intrepid’ Woodward?’
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/09/25/whats-the-difference-between-villain-assange-intrepid-woodward/
Be all that as it is. it’s not so good to see how Winnie has turned into a sad old sack of shit in his dotage given that he has done more than a weeeny teeny bit of good over the years. And that’s taking account of the right of passage into curmudgeonhood of the elderly, and having worked, and had one of his bros empty his soul a while back, including his bro.
Sad stuff really. And hopefully he’ll have realised that hold-the-ladder-steady Shane – all equipped with his massive ego isn’t someone he should chose as a BFF. It doesn’t just look pathetic – it is actually pathetic
As Crusher was channeling Muldoon the other night at the debate, Winston has always channeled him, Muldoon serious manipulator picked Winnie, being part Maori, of Scot father Maori Mother, and large family of land ownership as a face of caring National Party non sectarian chance as possible one time leader of the farm fence controlled Nat!s Party, or as would you believe Collin!s saying Shane Reti, has leadership potential for leading the Party. What person of intelligence would believe that.
Many people think NZFirst is a good check on poor Labour policies. I believe more people will come this conclusion. Weather true or not, we’ll it’s subjective.
If the election was held today – I’d vote TOP. Yes to Cannabis. I’d skip voting on euthanasia. Electoral Vote: TOP’s candidate (pretty sure they have one).
I’m an early voter so an October Surprises would have to come early. Like me, perhaps other people will want to get voting over with early.
Zack Brando,
“Many people think NZFirst is a good check on poor Labour policies. I believe more people will come this conclusion. Weather true or not, we’ll it’s subjective”
You’ve been listening to Peters way too much as that’s the narrative he’s desperately pushing. Most people I’ve spoken with believing Peters has abused his power while in Government. Cullen was 100% correct when he stated the Capital Gains Tax was sunk by vested interest. It was a magnificent well overdue opportunity to bring some fairness into our tax system. Peters destroyed that opportunity. As a result the status quo remains. Those creaming it are gifted a free pass while the rest of us are being fleeced week in week out by our outdated tax system. Thanks for nothing Winston Peters.
Peters is exactly correct over the Ihumatao situation. At the time when Ardern made the catastrophic decision to intervene, sundry iwi leaders warned that if the government got involved, it would reopen all previous Treaty settlements.
Moreover, given that the land in question is privately-owned, government intervention will put at risk the private property rights of all of the rest of us, whatever our ethnicity.
This is indisputable: any lawyer knows it. Peters is a lawyer: ergo, he knows the score.
+100….at last a sensible comment! ( in other words NOT another boring DUMB ARSE comment)
Peters actually said that he was a ‘handbrake’ on the Labour led Government.
Everyone knows you can’t drive with the handbrake on.
Time for Labour to let the handbrake off and deliver some real progressive policy.
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