NZ First leader Winston Peters doing his first post-election interview in an exclusive with "Dirty Politics" blogger Cameron Slater.
NZ First leader Winston Peters doing his first post-election interview in an exclusive with "Dirty Politics" blogger Cameron Slater.
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters will speak at the notorious blogger’s 20th anniversary party.
Cameron Slater claims he enjoys informal “chats with Winston”.
Judith Collins tells the Herald if she will be going to the party, and why.
Former Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater will celebrate 20 years of blogging with a party in July - and New Zealand’s Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has agreed to deliver the “roast”.
“When I asked Winston if he would do it, he asked me if it wasan all-day event,” Slater told the Herald.
The fact he has given Peters a starring role appears a dramatic volte-face for Slater, who in years past was known for taunting the politician, including referring to him as “Winston Raymond Peters, 65, pensioner of St Mary’s Bay” as if he were a criminal.
Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and NZ First leader Winston Peters being interviewed by journalists at Parliament this year. Blogger Cameron Slater has spoken fondly of his "chats with Winston"
Now though, Slater has become an apparent enthusiast for the Deputy Prime Minister, 80, boasting of long informal conversations between the pair - and claiming he seeds ideas with Peters that turn into political policy.
Slater originally became well-known through his now-defunct Whale Oil blog which broke the story that Auckland Mayor Len Brown had had extramarital sex in the Town Hall’s Ngāti Whātua room in 2013.
A year later, Slater was again the focus of attention when investigative journalist Nicky Hager’s book, Dirty Politics, alleged a dirty-tricks link between the blogger, the Prime Minister’s office - and Cabinet minister Judith Collins.
Collins resigned from her Ministerial roles when an email trail suggested she had passed information to Slater that had then been used in an attempt to oust the former head of the Serious Fraud Office while she was Police Minister.
Slater said he had embellished her involvement, and Collins was later cleared in an inquiry.
Later - amid revelations he had taken cash to target people - the Whale Oil blog collapsed and Slater lost three defamation actions, went into personal bankruptcy and suffered a serious health event.
Having recovered his health, he is now on to his third blog “Good Oil” which he bills as “News and Commentary from a Conservative Point of View”.
The promotional material for the 20th anniversary party says: “Join us for a night to remember as we celebrate 20 years of blogging, breaking news and holding the powerful to account.
“For two decades, Cam Slater has been at the forefront of fearless journalism: challenging narratives, exposing hypocrisy and keeping the establishment on its toes. Now, it’s time to raise a glass and mark this milestone with friends, supporters and fellow truth-seekers.”
NZ First leader Winston Peters being interviewed by Cameron Slater before the 2023 election.
The Herald asked Peters as he approached Parliament why he was delivering the roast at the party.
“That’s none of your business,” he responded.
The Herald asked: “Is Cam Slater sending you policy issues to incorporate into your speeches?”
Peters responded: “Don’t be a full-flushing idiot. Nobody provides me with information and certainly not you.”
Collins had less to say when approached. She said she was not going to the party. “I am too busy.”
By the time of the party on July 5, Peters will have relinquished the Deputy Prime Minister role to Act leader David Seymour - but is expected to retain foreign affairs and other portfolio responsibilities.
In September 2023, Slater was hosting a show on alternative news broadcaster Reality Check Radio with NZ First candidate Kirsten Murfitt when he spoke of his relationship with Peters.
Slater said: “Him and I catch up every now and then just on the quiet - we don’t make a song and dance about it,” he said. “We sit there and we just talk. And, you know, we’ve been known to talk for hours, the two of us, about everything going back in history.
“And then the other funny thing that I find is a couple of days later, or even a couple of weeks later, I see him say something at a public meeting or put out a press release.
“And the things that I was arguing with him about and we were disagreeing on, he’s now picked those up and adopted them without making a fanfare out of it and I’m sitting there thinking, ‘oh, I’d better go and have a few more of these chats with Winston’.”
Cabinet minister Judith Collins told the Herald she is too busy to attend blogger Cam Slater's party.
Slater, asked previously about the statement, said: “Winston is an amiable and likeable character. If I have influenced him then good, if not, too bad.”
On his apparent softening towards Peters, he said: “People change, as have I. Winston doesn’t seem to care, so why do you? It’s [a] shame you don’t seem able to change, and that’s just sad. I’ll pray for you.”
Contacted about Peters attending his upcoming party, Slater said he was grateful to those “who have done the most to promote my work”, listing this writer, Nicky Hager, those who had successfully sued him and Len Brown. “I do hope you can all attend.”
He signed off with: “Other than that, f*** off.”
Former United Future leader Peter Dunne was a Minister in coalition with National at the time Dirty Politics came out and said the relationship between Peters and Slater was no surprise.
“Winston Peters has had similar sorts of relationships over the years with people in the media.”
Of Peters and Slaters, he said: “In a way, they are birds of a feather.” Each has had legal battles - and Peters’ enjoyment of the stage and pageantry of politics meant he would embrace “strong characters” with shared interests.
At the time Dirty Politics came out, Dunne said he considered Slater to be someone who was well-informed through links to National Party figures even at a time the party was seeking to distance itself from him.
“Well-informed but a nuisance.”
Hager said he was “shocked” Peters had a current relationship with Slater because of the “vitriol” he had previously aimed at the NZ First leader.
“Winston Peters has got a lot more to lose from being associated with Cameron Slater than Cameron Slater has to lose from the relationship” he said.
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He first joined the Herald in 2004.
