The transfer of Deputy between Winston and David is May 31st and the stage is already set for a showdown between ACT and NZF.
Winston will have his Ferry report, David will have finished his 6 month hate tour for the Treaty Principles Referendum and the next devastating Austerity Budget will be on its way.
David Seymour wrong on cost of ferry replacement project, says Winston Peters
The new Minister of Rail Winston Peters has poured scorn on ACT leader David Seymour’s hopes of privatising the Cook Strait ferry service, and says Seymour was “wrong” about the cost of the new project.
On Wednesday, Seymour said indicative costings were “approximately half the at least $3 billion cost” of Labour’s proposal.
He shared that information despite Minister of Finance Nicola Willis’ caution about disclosing costs.
Asked on Morning Report if the government had a sum in mind, Peters said it would be “stupid” and “imprudent” to name the price.
“I said [on Wednesday] it would be most imprudent, politically and business-wise, stupid, to start saying what you’re going to buy them for, because that’s the bottom line. They’ll start from there and up it will go.”
He rejected Seymour’s statement the new deal would cost a “fraction of the price” of the iRex project, and that private investment remained on the table.
“You’re talking to the minister in charge now, not the one that’s not in charge.”
Pressed by Hipkiss on whether Seymour’s sum was incorrect, he said, “Of course he’s wrong on it.
“He’s wrong on the figures that he’s used, he’s wrong on the question of privatisation and he’s wrong on the question of what it’s going to cost.
The sudden eruption of battle lines between two of Parliament’s most formidable foes is being driven by the Deputy PM swap over deadline, the economic pain 2025 will represent and most importantly, the TVNZ Poll showing almost 50% of NZFirst voters supports Seymour’s Treaty Principles Referendum.
I’ve been arguing thanks to the decline of journalism, the rise of social media hate algorithms and Seymour’s cunning, ACT can aim to be in double digits at the next election, but all to the cost of the Right.
He will cannibalise National vote and enough NZF vote to sink Winston under 5%.
This is why Winston is suddenly building the argument of rail capable Ferry’s owned by the State. Nationalist Economic Sovereignty has always been a powerful card for Winston and being willing to die in a ditch for the Ferries is the exact issue he could break from the Government ver and call an early election if ACT threatens his 5% viability.
If the Māori Party keep over playing their hand, it opens the door for Winston to appeal to Chippy.
David has a 6 month race stunt campaign to build ACT up enough to sink Winston and become far more powerful.
They both know this.
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That awful buffoon Luxon is sufficient reason for Peters to call a snap election and rid the country of these damaging Nats, including all the toads slithering around behind the scenes.
The problem for Winston is he is all to aware of what happened to his old boss Muldoon when he called a snap election. Winston will have to make it look like he is reluctantly going to the polls and lay the blame elsewhere. My take is 2025 will be the year for polls, if the current CoC slips further or if one party takes a big hit, a no confidence scenario could force an early election.
Wasn’t Muldoon drunk at the time? Peters is more disciplined. He is an astute politician, articulate, has a better grasp of history than most Parliamentarians, has risen from the ashes more than Phoenix, and doesn’t take himself as seriously as most of the present undeserving lot do. He and Shane Jones may be the best equipped to clear out English, Key and Shipley. Luxon is almost irrelevant- except in his own mind.
Well Pip hopefully Winston has a cunning plan up his sleeve to derail this abysmal excuse for a govt otherwise he is part of it and history will record that against him. You are only as good as your last performance, as the critics tell us. And yes Muldoon was drunk at the time but I would say even drunk he would run rings around Luxon!
Neil, I’m not sure that blaming Peters for not vanquishing the abysmal majority party is entirely fair. No man does it all by himself. Of course Muldoon would run rings around Luxon, but nor would any serious political leader, drunk or sober, be insolent enough to issue pictures of himself in pyjamas at Christmas and assume that we, the great unwashed, would be receptive to this. I remember little of Muldoon, but I do think that he genuinely cared about New Zealanders, Luxon, not so. Peters has acquired a certain stature and will be remembered for this. Luxon, never. What matters is the disconnect between the power-wielders and the people they’re meant to represent.
If the disconnect between the power-wielders and the people they’re meant to represent needs to be sorted then the people who put them there need educating. Sadly but often true, and as another Winston once quipped: “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter….”
When politicians don’t know their own history, and the msm peddles its own agenda, it’s unsurprising if the great unwashed are also uneducated. Don’t forget that before the last election the media assiduously avoided reporting Peter’s meetings, and then whined when he was subsequently and understandingly brusque with them. Muldoon could do this too, but in a less edifying way than Peters; Key had the media wrapped around his little finger, even when he was patently wrong, eg with Hager’s Dirty Politics revelations, while PM English swanned off to some wailing pop singer’s concert in the wake of the Hager/Stevenson report on the SAS atrocities in Afghanistan, saying Nothing to See Here.
Peters has more class than any of them – Scots mother… I think he also comes from a large family, and that smooths off a few of the rough edges – except in the case of wee Bill English as the exception which proves the rule.
Will their still, collective hatred, and jealousy, of the highly successful, and top world stage perfomer,Jacinda Ardern, and the Labour Party, stop them from clubbing each other to death….or…
Will the egoes of Mr.6% and Mr. 8% get the better of them whereby it turns into an evermore viscious sniping match as Luxon stands by and watches ‘the right’ vote disintegrate.
They both have a well documented hatred of each other .
Seymour is inexperienced, and fundamentally stupid on so many levels it’s hard to know where to start…
How would he know the price of new rail enabled ferries and the necessary cost of
upgrading the end of life wharves at both Wellington and Picton….answer…he can’t and he doesn’t.
Neither did ‘Nicky No Boats’ Willis , but that also didn’t stop her shooting
her mouth off….what a team!!
Remember she promised a couple of 2nd hand ships without knowing anything…and when nothing came, said she had “delivered”..wtf??clueless.
At least Winston, in some sense, is wise enough not to shoot his mouth
off like the other 2 ..their credibility
is now non-existent.
With this form in mind, Winston is in the most powerful position. He can keep highlighting Seymour’s obvious ignorance and stupidity which is there for all to see…everyday… and, when push comes to shove , and party survival is on the line, Winston will slap that little twerp and show him up for the fraud that he is.
Meanwhile, the innocuous sounding ‘Regulatory Standards Bill’ (https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/12/18/the-long-neoliberal-con/) will be passed, and all pretence at “democracy” will end.
When legislation that will be “severely curtailing the ability of the government to regulate harmful business practices or corporate exploitation, even if such regulation is in the public interest” is being passed, you know the plan to finally sell-off of New Zealand to rich greedy overseas exploiters is nearing completion.
Well done National, NZFirst and Act voters. You have betrayed us all. Hope you have a lousy New Year.
could you not see that before the election or were you blindsided by the race baiting like 40% of the voters
Anyone with the ability and inclination to read during the Election Campaign could see the far right agenda and selling out of New Zealand by these devious traitors. Whilst a dullard, I at least was never part of the 40% you allude to Gordon.
Let us pray.Winston can stay but Seymour has to go.
hope the whole government collapses due to their feral egos
Martyn – No…Winston will highlight any flaws of Seymour as part of his re-election campaign.
Good to see the infighting between Musk’s mob and trade MAGA in the US. Bring it!
A scrape between Seymour and Winston is a wet dream for many on this platform. I doubt it will happen as both know they need each other to stay in power and keep their voters from falling away. Act could never go with Labour and Winston would lose face if he teamed up with them after all he has said about them especially if Hipkins remains.
I know little of the inner working of Labour Greens and TPM but my gut feeling is TPM would find it hard tomwork with either of the other two as they see themselves as the only true representative of Maori.
Poor Trevor clutching at straws again it’s all about ego for these two and with such a clueless PM all hell will let loose when Peter’s plays second fiddle to Seymour
Trevor Political suicide for any party teaming up with Te Parti Maori. It won’t happen. They’re not truly representative of Maori, are racist, represent one disgruntled man, are all related to each other, have a pathological hatred of their European heritage, and behave badly in public.
That’s 185 years of oppression!!!! what’s your excuse?
I have never behaved badly in public. Pretty good in private too. Don’t hate anybody, but am not too keen on people talking loudly on cellphones on buses, litterbugs, and liars.
Good TPM assessment which I struggle to contest. Though, petty Maori tribal rivalries aside, I do have time for JT & did find much of merit in TPMs last manifesto…certainly more than Hipkins Lab one.
It would be political suicide for either Peters or Seymour to kneecap the other in the next year.
Both are too politically astute for that so both will continue to honour the Coalition agreement. Things may change somewhat in the 3/4 month lead up to the 2026 Election which is when your prediction about The Maori Party opening the door for Peters with Labour may be more likely.
Having said that I think Peters will only consider going with Labour then if NZFirst does better in the Election than the Greens – he will not be the 3rd wheel to the Greens. I also suspect Hipkins and a few others will need to have departed the scene before he considers Labour anyway.
Agree 100%
pdm Yep, Hipkins has to go. NZ First may well be more popular than any polls suggest and they have garnered support for both the left and the right. Peters being third wheel to the Greens would be a dystopian nightmare. In Parliament the NZ First people acquit themselves well, while the Greens appear to vie with te Pati Maori in proving that the lunatics have escaped from the asylum, Chloe shouts, and ageing huia smile smugly seemingly unaware that life is actually tough for many outside their own elitist bubble.
It is likely I have said this before but there is that now applicable to NZ politics quote of “Too Err is Human. To really F*ck Things up take a Politician..” Especially those in the NZ First, National and ACT political parties.
We now have a minister of finance with ONLY an English Literature degree running into the ground the Economic Finances of the Country whilst looking after her Fellow National MPs in tax cuts(on rentals) and legalised Tax Avoidance on the sales of those rentals.
We have a bunch of so-called politicians that prior to the election in 2023 Swore Black, Blue and Yellow that they would resign but have Failed Abysmally on That Particular Pre-election Promise especially when it It Involves Themselves and THEIR FAILED ACTIONS.
What we now have is thousands of unemployed NZ workers laid off by a bunch of In All Reality of Unemployable so-called politicians who are Nothing Short of Free-Loading Troughers Stupidly calling themselves a ‘coalition’.
These Unemployable politicians can be guarantee-ed of high paying contracts thanks to their mates in the political party they hold allegiance to. Can someone please name any Unemployed former National MP???!!
Deep down when it comes to this so-called coalition I see three main individuals Who Do Not Trust Each Other but Need Each Other for the Sake of Ego, Photo Opportunities and being the Centre of Attention however Short-term and Transient that time line really is.
It will be resolved by making Winston Peters the next Governor General. A fitting climax to a life-long career of devoted public service.
That tragic old queen (Winston) better get in quick if he ever wants to preserve His legacy as a reasonable man of the people. This would be His second mistake. The first being a phenomenon known as Shane.
Time is running low.
Qway Sarah Sarah tho’. A bit sad really, but so be it
Notice no one on here thinks Peters is past his use by. A couple point out that he can side with anyone until they make the mistake of putting him on the sideline . Ardern should have appointed him to London or Washington when she had the chance. It seems no one gives Luxon any show in a snap election but bear in mind by selling his rental houses he’s topped up his war chest and no fund raising or reporting to the Electoral Commission will be necessary
It will be interesting to watch. Hope we don’t suffer from it as Seymour gets more power. I’ve been trying to think through how MMP could be better. We dumped the First Past the Post system because of people Winston willingly served under – until he got the pip. I still think it is right (at least for now) but the current CoC, a weak PM and their determination to ram through policies, with little public input makes it feel like nothing much has changed. Have a look at the short time frame for public submissions on important bills expiring in early January. Most people won’t notice as they come and go.
“Their determination to ram through policies, with little public input makes it feel like nothing much has changed”
Seems you are correct in that Darien.
Maori wards was introduced by Labour with no consultation, 3waters and Co-Governance was set up despite the opposition to it (voters and councils).
Your memory seems to be fading as you get older Darien, or just blinkered, luckily most of us don’t forget and will hapolly remind you of the reason why Labour were so crushed last election.
Voters and Council’s are now already wishing for the 3 waters model as this trainwreck of an alternative is proving to be very costly and unsustainable….
Labour…once again…was right all along..
sorry I believe I’m wrong would fit you better, Labour was crushed as you put it, because the 40% believed the lies and feared the truth.
Winston is right where he wants to be, able to push his own agenda from June 1st without being deputy PM.
Peters is a liar and a crook. Just ask don brash if you don’t believe me.
Seymour is something akin to a slime that might grow on unburied shit.
We’re all greater than this. We deserve better. Debating the post neoliberal politician is beneath us.
Winston has ruled out working with Chippy.
And Chippy has stated he’s not standing down while also ruling out working with Winston So there is that dead rat
Nevertheless, Labour won’t be ready for a snap election. They’re still forming policy.