Herald's criticism treason, says Peters

Winston Peters

Foreign Minister Winston Peters yesterday launched a blistering attack on the Herald, warning that criticism of his performance could be seen as treason.

After a troubled first international outing at Apec in South Korea, Mr Peters told his New Zealand First party faithful that he had been misreported over the suggested content of a discussion with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Further, he had had to endure the Herald "and its editorial writer writing day-in and day-out attacks on someone whose job it is to image [sic] and represent this country abroad on foreign policy. There's a word for that and it starts with T - it's treason", he said, adding a conditional rider: "It is when it is lies."

Mr Peters told the party meeting in Rotorua that the Herald had opposed his campaign over the Winebox tax avoidance case through "68 editorials", but had not apologised. The paper was a "disgrace to democracy".

The Herald's most recent editorial on Mr Peters as Foreign Minister, published last Wednesday, questioned his decision not to sit on an important Cabinet sub-committee, and to be briefed by officials after ministers had debated issues.

It noted: "He has been unable to resist a role of some grandeur and his position becomes more ludicrous by the week. If this is the way Mr Peters wants it, he is inviting more than ridicule. He invites serious questions about the value he is offering for his ministerial salary and the considerable expenses of that office."

It concluded: "If he wants to pretend he is Foreign Minister the least he could do is contribute to the decisions he must defend. Otherwise he declares his job a sinecure - all status, no responsibility."

The paper stands by its editorial, and its reporting of the Apec issues from Korea.