It led to a testy back-and-forth during Question Time. Video / Parliament TV
Winston Peters says he would have left Te Pāti Māori’s Rawiri Waititi “limping” if the pair had left the House together amid a brouhaha over a question from the Deputy Prime Minister.
Prime made numerous interjections during an answer from Stanford, seemingly prompting Peters to stand with his own question.
“Would students at te reo Māori lessons learn more if they kept their mouth shut while the teacher was talking?” he asked Stanford.
Although the question appeared intended as a comment on Prime interjecting while Stanford was speaking, Te Pāti Māori’s Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Waititi took issue with it.
They protested Government MPs laughing at the question, questioning how young Māori students may feel about that remark.
Te Pāti Māori’s Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi in the House. Photo / Jamie Ensor
Amid the shouting across the House, Speaker Gerry Brownlee called for calm and said to the Te Pāti Māori co-leaders: “Yeah, good, excellent, go and have an argument outside and be quiet in here”.
After several more interjections back and forth across the House, Waititi said: “You wouldn’t last five seconds”. Ngarewa-Packer could be heard yelling out “disgusting”.
Waititi eventually stood up and gestured to outside the chamber, appearing to invite Peters out, though neither politician left.
Later, speaking to media, Waititi said: “He told me I’d be out in five seconds, so I was going to test that theory”. Ngarewa-Packer also made comments highly critical of Peters.
The Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader said Te Pāti Māori were being “pathetic” and “cowardly”.
He denied challenging the pair to a fight.
“No, I didn’t, but he did. I said, you might be walking out, but you’ll be limping back.”
Peters laughed when asked whether he thought he could beat Waititi.
“Oh, give me a break. I wouldn’t waste my time. Those guys are all talk, look at their record.”
In 2020, Peters responded to a tweet from his now-coalition partner by saying: “I reckon you’d last 10 seconds in the ring with me. There’d be three hits - you hitting me, me hitting you, and the ambulance hitting 100. Thank your lucky stars I’m not into physical violence.”
This is also just the latest row between Peters and Te Pāti Māori. He took issue last month with a general debate contribution from Te Pāti Māori’s Tākuta Ferris that Peters believed suggested other MPs were “liars”. Ferris’ denial of that has led the issue to go before Parliament’s powerful Privileges Committee.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.
