Campaign Day 5: An old tune fondly rePetered

By JOHN ARMSTRONG political editor

He's back. Winston Peters, the voice of those who hanker after the New Zealand of yesteryear, is the not-so-quiet achiever in this election campaign.

Look at the the polls. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, New Zealand First is on the rise.

In this week's Herald-DigiPoll survey, NZ First has climbed to 4.6 per cent. And it broke through the psychological 5 per cent barrier in last night's TV3 poll.

Hardly spectacular stuff when compared with the soaring Greens. But Mr Peters gives every impression of someone who is timing his campaign sprint to perfection after sitting at the back of the bunch for the past three years.

National looks listless; Act is typically frenetic; Mr Peters is relaxed. With Tauranga in the bag, he is barnstorming the country like the Winston of old. He is enjoying himself. He has nothing to lose.

Yesterday he was in Milford on Auckland's North Shore. Another lunchtime public meeting - a packed meeting with more than 200 people hanging off his every hyperbole.

His targets are familiar - the Establishment and the big city media.

His message is minimalist.

NZ First will fix three things in three years. The lawlessness on our streets. The Treaty of Waitangi "industry" which "bloats the few" but helps neither Maori nor the taxpayer. The "mindless flood" of immigrants. Three things in three years.

His office had promised a hard-hitting speech. A Winston Peters speech is always hard-hitting. But from the start of this campaign, he has ratcheted up the rhetoric. The language is becoming extreme.

In the process, he is shifting NZ First from the centre of the political spectrum towards the right, outflanking National and trying to outflank Act by taking an ever harder line.

But Mr Peters can afford to make outlandish promises. Minor parties have the luxury of knowing the bigger ones will never agree to implement them.

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