Barry Soper: Like him or not, Winston Peters deserves some respect

It's Winston Peters' first week as acting Prime Minister and one of his biggest challenges was always going to be his relationship with the media.

At the outset I have to declare I've probably had a more tumultuous relationship with Peters over the years than any other journalist, with him at one point refusing to have me accompany him on his trip in 2007 to North Korea. Those stoushes usually involved myself and other colleagues in combat with the fiery Foreign Minister.

He gives as good as he gets, like him or dislike him, that's the nature of this country's most experienced politician. But unfortunately he wasn't given the opportunity by TV3 to give, instead he got sacked by the equally firebrand host of their breakfast show Duncan Garner.

The media in this country gets more access to politicians than anywhere else in the world.

The Prime Minister fronts up after Cabinet meets on Mondays, she/he appears on breakfast radio and television shows on Tuesday mornings, later in the day they run the gauntlet of the Press Gallery on their way into their caucus meetings in the morning and again on their way into Parliament's debating chamber in the afternoon which is repeated the following afternoon. When they're not at Parliament they always meet the media after an event around the country.

In his role as acting Prime Minister, Peters wanted a later time slot on TV3 than 6.40am on Tuesdays and clearly thought he'd been successful with 6.50am yesterday written in his diary. His phone log showed he was at the Beehive at 6.43am and he says he was ready to go to air.

Am Show was scheduled for 6:50am in Peters' diary. Photo / Supplied

At the same time Garner was telling his audience Peters had failed to make it to his interview, saying he'd warned his producers that he'd had a lot to do with the man over the years, usually late at night, and surmising he was never going to be there in the morning.

"You've got to take this stuff seriously Winston... we need to be able to rely on you Mr Peters, you are the acting Prime Minister... it doesn't surprise me you haven't made it this morning, so we've taken our own executive decision, we're going to give you a sleep in for the next two weeks, we do not require you on the programme because you're unreliable Sir, it's Winston first and not anyone else."

After the rant Garner declared with his co-host Mark Richardson: "You're fired."

There's a disconnect here, and that's not just the connection they could have had with Peters all along. Whether they like it or not he's the Acting Prime Minister, an office that deserves some respect.

But there was none of that from a young TV3 reporter at Parliament later asking Peters: "Is 6.40 in the morning a little bit too early for you to get up?"

They reckon they'll get one of his colleagues to fill in: Fat chance!