GUEST BLOG: Tadhg Stopford – Why I’ll always love Winston. The Winebox, Winston, and the Theft of New Zealand
Most people don’t really understand what the Winebox Inquiry was, or why it mattered. It wasn’t just about dodgy tax loopholes—it was about how New Zealand’s wealth was siphoned away, piece by piece, by well-connected people who knew exactly what they were doing (Molloy, Thirty Pieces of Silver).
Winston Peters blew the lid off it. He dragged a literal winebox full of documents into Parliament, exposing how major corporations and financial players were running tax-dodging schemes that robbed New Zealanders blind (NZ Parliament, Winebox Papers). This wasn’t accidental, and it wasn’t a bureaucratic oversight—it was deliberate. And the kicker? The people responsible were paid handsomely, respected publicly, and protected institutionally.
If you want the full picture, Tony Molloy QC lays it out brutally in Thirty Pieces of Silver. He details how tax havens were exploited, how corporate elites structured deals to avoid paying their fair share, and how New Zealand’s financial system was hijacked for private gain (Molloy, Thirty Pieces of Silver). Peters, whatever you think of him now, fought the good fight on this one.
And that’s why, no matter what, a part of me will always love Winston Peters.
Because how many politicians have actually gone to war with the powerful? How many have dragged their secrets into the daylight and forced them to squirm? It wasn’t perfect. But it mattered. And it showed us the game.
And yet, look where we are today.
Wealth in New Zealand is now tied to debt, not productivity. Who owns that debt? Australian banks (Reserve Bank of New Zealand). And the rest of us? We’re struggling to afford a life in our own country, while foreign capital extracts more and more from the land our grandparents built. We are not sovereign. We are economic tenants.
How did this happen? Because we don’t understand the game. We take everything at face value. We accept the stories they tell us—the distractions, the division, the blame. We’re taught to see the symptoms (the cost of living, wage stagnation, housing inflation) but never the cause: that our economy has been structured to serve others, not us.
And here’s the sucker punch: We admire and desire wealth that is already ours. The profits of our labor, the value of our land, the earnings of our industries—we generate the wealth, but it doesn’t stay with us. Instead, it funnels into the pockets of professionals and financial intermediaries, the same ones who make sure even more of it goes offshore. We are spectators in our own economy, watching from the sidelines while the game is played at our expense.
Thats mafia empires rule the modern world—not with armies, but with financial dependency and captured governments (Michael Hudson, The Destiny of Civilization). They divide us, they confuse us, and they distract us from the theft of our commons. And when someone like Winston, even for a moment, exposes the system, they are undermined, sidelined, and ridiculed (Hager, The Hollow Men). But then they unite, collude, conceal, continue; and divide us against each other to distract.
So what do we do?
Get off the sidelines. Stop playing their game. Start playing ours.
This economy is ours, this country is ours. It’s time we took charge. The single most important thing to understand is, as long as we are sovereign, we can afford to build anything we need. Anyone who says we can’t, is ill informed. Or a traitor, thief, or knave.
Tadhg Stopford is a Teacher and Historian.
Might be a bit too late .The COC is hell bent on giving the remains of our country to overseas people for $5 million .Then they can own what ever and we will wash and cook for them unless they bring their own people to be exploited even further .ACT and Vanveldeen are making sure that we have no rights to protect the working people against this assult on work exploitation .It has nothing to do with making NZ a better place for all it is about extracting as much as possable for the few .
Back in the 1990s Winston used to campain against the Asian invasion and got a lot of votes for that reason .But every time he was in government he was complicit in increasing that invasion .Now he finds it easier to attack his fellow people because the Asian invasion has taken over the country .Now he pushes another popular race bait message against his own Whanau pretending he is a member of the sorted white group .He is happy to attack every brown MP until it becomes his turn then he gets nasty .If a brown MP returns the favour he then sets out to belittle and destroy that person .He is a fraud in lots of ways .
Winston says we need one law for all unless you are Maori then you come under the law of oppression and hate with no rights what so ever .
Where on earth did Peters say that ? Could be you’re confusing him with Ferris the Ferret, IMO.
Peters is considered to be an “economic nationalist” but he is also a die-hard colonialist. Those two positions are fundamentally irreconcilable. We don’t need to “love” or hate Peters in any part of our being. We need to understand him, and, more importantly, we need to understand the Realm of New Zealand’s on-going colonial status. Ultimately we need to do something about it. We need to bring an end to 185 years of colonialist rule and fully re-institute rangatiratanga under te whakaminenga.
GF Cool reasoning – understand him, yes.
Further on this point – from the post.
Because how many politicians have actually gone to war with the powerful? How many have dragged their secrets into the daylight and forced them to squirm? It wasn’t perfect. But it mattered. And it showed us the game.
I have just been looking at info about Jeffrey Sachs eminent USA guy, who obviously I know little about. A quote from him hit me:
‘John F Kennedy’s unimaginable bravery to make peace at the height of the Cold War.’
(I had to copy that out as I’m being barred from some use on youtube apparently because I have ad blockers on.)
Well, JF Kennedy upset the powerful apparently so Winston better watch out.
Plus NB – Sachs and the Millienium Village Project.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Villages_Project
and
Why did the Millennium Village project fail?
Lacking adequate ODA, the interventions advocated by the UN Millennium Project could not be implemented at national scale in low-income Africa, and Africa as a whole fell short on the MDGs, with inevitable adverse consequences within the MVs as well.
Lessons from the Millennium Villages Project: a personal …
The Lancet https://www.thelancet.com › langlo › article › fulltext
Brush up too on your acronyms? ODA & MDG…
Seymour and Key saw fit to make lame jokes about ‘the wine-box’ theft and fraud in Parliament ,,,
Some-one should quiz Seymour on what the joke was ….
Luxon gets it … worked within it ,,,, and is bedding it in to the detriment of our country,,, https://michaelwest.com.au/unilever-a-multinational-tax-dodger-classic/
One important takeaway from this post is that the people of this country who can vote but are not politically aware are continually being taken advantage of. With negative results. It is the voters who in the past fifty years voted in the govts that first wrecked the economy, then sold off assets, put workers on the scrap heap, exported those with skills, industrialised farms and poisoned the environment. Now this country is being suckered into accepting ponzie schemes posing as growth. The ownership of this country’s major utilities must be returned to the citizens 100% and the management of critical infrastructure must be by 100% elected govt representatives and appointed officers. FPP had its flaws and certainly needed tweaking, an upper house or legislative council is still an option. MMP may have been a good idea for uniting Germany post WW2 but has proven divisive and a liability in New Zealand.
You see things so clearly Neil. Too clearly – I think a board showing virtual reality has been pushed in front of your eyes. But the real world is where people are confused and start off on quests in all directions. eg ‘the voters’. It’s all our fault. It would be a good time to reconsider Machiavelli:
Machiavelli believed that public and private morality had to be understood as two different things in order to rule well. As a result, a ruler must be concerned not only with reputation, but also must be positively willing to act unscrupulously at the right times.
Niccolò Machiavelli – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Niccolò_Machiavelli
To stay clear-minded I suggest we stick to running marathons where the end and time fills the mind and desire, nothing else to be considered. If only we could all keep running marathons and never have confusing ideas with uncertain results put in front of us to attach to.
You may call me a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. The reality for me is we need to get back to where we once belonged.
I see the old coot has been in the river of filth for way too long and has caught swamp fever and has joined RFK Jnr in his crusade on anti any thing that improves health .How many people in Hastings have died or even become unwell in the 70 years they have had fluoride in the water down there .Clearly there has been no ill side effects over all those years so to question the scientific fact after 70 years is a bit bloody stupid .
Agree Winston is an old coot but he is the only voice of some sanity in the CoC. Whether its fluoride or any other health additive the citizens of Whangarei should have the final say and the right to decide what is put or not put in the water they drink. That is where the WDC appears to be heading.
My aunty says gin would beat fluoride any day
Way to go!!
Once a crusader always a crusader; once a self-interested opportunist always a self-interested opportunist? Now, imv Winston is the consummate politician, a mixture of crusader and opportunist. The wine box, immigration rhetoric, the Gold Card – whatever. Take the Gold Card. I’ve heard it said that Winston simply piggy-backed on the lobbying of other organizations, but he and NZF gets the lions share of the credit. The wine box. I have no doubt the crusader in Winton saw a just cause – and the more filthy it became the better the opportunity became. Can we blame him? No. As someone has said, perhaps he just needs some understanding. Don’t we all.
He was always good at winding up the ref.