Winston Peters walks past the media pack playing Chumbawamba's song 'Tubthumping' on his cellphone on his way into the House, with comments from Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis. Video / Mark Mitchell
A grinning Winston Peters kicked off at Parliament today in a defiantly comedic fashion, by walking past media on his way into the debating chamber with Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping blaring from his phone.
And Prime Minister Christopher Luxon - now on his third day of fielding questions about the NZ First leader comparing elements of race issues in New Zealand to Nazi Germany - has called on all political leaders to “grow up” and focus on the country instead.
Peters did not stop to answer any questions - but had waited down the corridor for some minutes before playing the song until after Luxon had finished speaking to media.
Luxon was being asked about Peters at the time and repeated his comment that all political leaders needed to be mindful of the language they were using.
“For goodness sake, everyone needs to grow up. The country has actually got some serious challenges in front of it, that’s what I’m focused on. If you’re a New Zealander listening to some of the language that’s going on from all political leaders, from all political parties, you’re sitting there thinking ‘what is going on?’”
He also mentioned Labour leader Chris Hipkins referring to the Government acting like a dictatorship, and comments made by Te Pāti Māori, referring to genetics and “how to train your Pākehā” online.
“I don’t have anything more to say other than what I said yesterday, which is that at the end of the day every political leader needs to be very mindful of the language they’re using. It doesn’t help us with maintaining civil politics. That is the message I gave to Winston Peters when I spoke to him.
“That is the message I’ve given to every political leader.”
Sony, the record company for the band Chumbawamba, are reportedly sending Peters a cease and desist notice. Photo / Getty Images
Peters had tweeted about the Chumbawamba warning this morning, saying there was “nothing to cease and desist” before having a jab at the band for being a one-hit wonder.
“The song worked like a charm for our first public meeting after the election. The over 700 people in the crowd thought so too. We will be sure to file the ‘cease and desist’ letter in a safe place if it ever arrives. I would use another of their hit song titles as a quip at the end of this post but unfortunately they only had one.”
He said this morning on TVNZ’s Breakfast he had not received any cease and desist notice as of yet.
A spokesperson for the Australasian Performing Right Association (Apra) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (Amcos) told the Herald the use of the Chumbawamba song has been referred to them by Sony Music Publishing on behalf of the writers of the work and their representatives.
Apra and Amcos licence the public performance of music in New Zealand via the licensing entity OneMusic NZ.
The spokesperson said a cease and desist letter will be forwarded to NZ First and Peters from Sony.
The spokesperson explained the Palmerston North Convention Centre where Peters spoke, which is owned by the Palmerston North City Council, is licensed by OneMusic but it does not cover “the performance of music in any manner that could reasonably be regarded as suggesting an approval, affiliation or endorsement by an artist, songwriter, publisher or record label of any business or goods/services including a political party or cause”.
“We can confirm that no further approvals were sought from anyone,” the spokesperson said.
“It is commonly accepted practice to seek approval to use someone else’s property. Requests to use music by political parties are commonly received. It’s certainly not unusual to need to do so. Again it would seem that no one has fully considered the rights of the owners of the music and the implications of using it in such a way. Anyone that knows this band and its views would quickly realise that such use in such context would never be approved.”
Peters has previously used it at party events and quoted it in his speech notes, including at NZ First’s convention in election year.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis came past after Peters but did not see his routine. On Chumbawamba, she said that while she had heard the song before, she had never heard of the band. “I’d never known it was by a band called such an interesting name. Chumba. Wamba.”
Asked if he was behaving like a child, she said she wouldn’t characterise the Deputy Prime Minister that way.
Asked how she would characterise him, she said “as someone who has a different style from me, a very different style from the Prime Minister. But someone who received support in the election and is helping our coalition government deliver the change.”
Peters had told Breakfast this morning when Luxon spoke to him about his reference to Nazi Germany in that speech, Luxon had said he had not seen the speech but had been told of its contents. Peters went on to claim Luxon was responding to a misrepresentation of his reference to Nazi Germany in that speech.
Asked if Peters was undermining him by questioning his understanding of the comments, Luxon said he was not misinformed and knew what he believed.
He said every politician had their own view of the media and that was fine, but everybody needed to “lift their language”.
Claire Trevett is the NZ Herald’s political editor, based at Parliament in Wellington. She started at the NZ Herald in 2003 and joined the Press Gallery team in 2007. She is a life member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
