NZ First leader Winston Peters is coming for Act and its party leader David Seymour, whether he likes it or not.
And National Party leader Christopher Luxon is likely going to have to address questions over how an arrangement with all three parties could work, and why it would be any less chaotic than how he seeks to depict the left bloc of Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori.
On Friday, Peters spoke to a packed hall of over 200 people in the leafy Auckland suburb of Remuera in the heart of the Epsom electorate, which is held by Seymour (National however commands a large majority in the party vote). It follows a run of similar meetings around the country, all attracting increasingly-large audiences as Peters seeks to re-enter Parliament after being booted out in the 2020 election.
Peters and Seymour have had some famous run-ins in the past, and there have been major questions raised over how they might get along in any future governing arrangement alongside National, although a debate last night revealed a softening between the two.
The parties also currently appear to be courting a similar voter base, further indicated by the large turnout for Peters in Seymour’s electorate.
It was an electric and energetic meeting, with the audience captivated by every word Peters had to say, with cheers and rounds of applause throughout.
He gave a little something to everybody, which also meant he at times did not make a lot of sense.
During the meeting the veteran politician railed against “neoliberal, far right and communist ideology”, which he says has taken over the country, in a speech tackling everything from Covid-19 and the World Health Organisation and its “global agenda” to human impacts on climate change.
Peters drew the loudest applause when speaking about his policy to have a “full scale inquiry” into the Government’s Covid-19 response. He said the current Royal Commission of Inquiry, announced at the end of 2022 and now under way, was too narrow in scope.
He drew another loud cheer talking about the Parliament protest last year.
“It’s an absolute disgrace what was going on,” Peters said of the anti-mandates protest camp, which he visited.
“I blame that utterly on members of Parliament who wouldn’t talk to them in the first place,” he said. There was only one other politician who sought to make peace with the protesters: Seymour.
But Peters was clearly out to make a point of why potential voters should be wary to support Act, constantly reminding the crowd of his experience compared to Seymour.
Do they want a politician with 40 years’ experience or simply “imitation”, he asked the crowd, which delivered some hearty cheering in response.
The comment mirrored a jab he made at last night’s Newshub Nation Powerbrokers Debate. As Seymour was defending himself against claims of race-baiting, Peters interjected, “he’s not baiting, he’s imitating!” - to which he chuckled heartily to himself.
Peters compared his experience to other parties too. On Te Pāti Māori’s pledge to tackle tax evasion, Peters reminded the audience it was he who was behind the Winebox Inquiry, a 1994 investigation of claims of corruption and incompetence in the Serious Fraud Office and Inland Revenue.
It was given the nickname after Peters brought the documents at the centre of the allegations to Parliament in a winebox.
“The only person who did anything about tax evasion, you’re looking at him,” he told the crowd.
During the public meeting, Peters also took aim at the Government’s climate change policies - and those of National - questioning the impacts of human activity on increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and its impact on global warming.
Act has also taken a strong stance against the Government’s policies around climate change and wants to repeal the Zero Carbon Act, which National supports.
Peters said New Zealand should not have to account for its emissions, including reducing agricultural emissions, and potentially pay billions of dollars for the pollution, as per international climate change agreements.
“They are prospecting to send this country totally broke.”
Peters also called out the tax policies of the other political parties, saying a wealth tax as proposed by the Greens and Te Pāti Māori would simply see the wealthy shift their money offshore - part of Labour leader Chris Hipkins’ reasoning for not supporting the idea - while questioning the cuts proposed by National and Act, in particular their plans to increase the superannuation age.
He received loud applause for repeating that he would not work with the Labour Party after the election, while calling on National to be more clear about how it could work with NZ First, saying he couldn’t comment on the matter until they did.
Luxon, meanwhile, did his best to avoid having to answer questions about working with Peters, again refusing to rule it out. He deflected five questions in a row about Peters and NZ First, instead reverting to his talking points that the question illustrated how important it was to only vote National and attempting to paint a Labour-led government with the Greens and Te Pāti Māori as a “coalition of chaos” instead.
On the most recent polls National and Act would be able to govern alone, but only just, and if NZ First continues to increase its support - with polls regularly now showing the party at the 5 per cent threshold to enter Parliament - a three-way coalition could be on the cards.
The Herald and other media asked Peters about these issues after the public meeting ended, along with some of his positions on Covid-19 and a proposed inquiry. Peters had claimed his inquiry would be similar to one announced this week by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, but that has already been criticised as too narrow in scope.
Peters said he had already sent out material explaining why his inquiry would be credible.
“And I’m not going to stand by while a biased corrupt journalist tells me it’s not,” he replied in a manner not unusual for him in responding to media.
He was equally unexcited to answer any questions about Seymour or how he could work with National.
The Herald did manage to speak to several of his supporters who had been in the audience.
There was a lot of support for what he said, particularly his comments about the pandemic.
“He’s the only one talking about these things,” said one young woman.
And the way things are going, Luxon might need to start talking about them too, one way or another.
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