Winston Peters' speech in Palmerston North compared co-governance to Nazi Germany.
Video / Mark Mitchell
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has doubled down on his comments likening Te Pāti Māori statements to Nazi Germany, claiming they had been misrepresented and saying he was “not backing down one iota.”
That’s despite Prime Minister Christopher Luxon speaking to Peters about the issue yesterday, and saying publicly that such comments by political leaders were unhelpful - although he has steered clear of directly criticising Peters for it.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has now said Peters ongoing comments on the issue show Luxon has “absolutely no control” over his coalition partner - the deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister - and that Luxon could not simply brush it off.
And while Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi did not want to get involved in the debate around Peters’ language, Ngarewa-Packer did argue back against Luxon’s description of some of the language they had used as inflammatory, saying he was not qualified to make such an assessment.
Luxon had called on all politicians to pare back the language, giving as examples Te Pāti Māori referring to National “as white supremacists who have got some sort of genocide agenda” and Labour leader Chris Hipkins describing the government as acting like a dictatorship.
Ngarewa-Packer said unless Luxon had experienced racism as a Māori he could not tell them how to respond. “So I don’t think he’s fit to be able to tell indigenous peoples how they should be feeling about what his anti-Māori agenda is doing to us.”
Peters had raised the matter again on Tuesday morning while speaking with media about his meeting yesterday with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and recent trip to India and Indonesia. He said he would have more to say on it later and on Tuesday afternoon, he released a statement blaming mis-reporting for the response.
In the morning, he had pivoted to that topic after he was asked about his comments about the killing of a Sikh leader in Canada, which Indian media had reported as suggesting Peters was casting doubt on claims from Canada that India was linked to the killing.
The reporting prompted Peters to speak with Canadian officials to assure them of his position, saying he would await the investigation into the killing before making a judgement.
He likened the matter to what he considered “the most deliberate misrepresentation” of the comments he made during his State of the Nation address on Sunday in Palmerston North, where he was speaking as New Zealand First leader.
During his speech, Peters appeared to compare Labour’s use of co-governance to “race-based theory”, as seen in Nazi Germany.
He later clarified his “Nazi Germany” comments were referring specifically to comments made by Te Pāti Māori regarding Māori genes.
Peters this morning argued statements from Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi claiming Māori DNA was superior to others was something Peters had seen “in other countries”.
Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Peters then hit back against anyone who claimed he had referenced the Holocaust and promised to make further statements on the matter later today.
“I never mentioned the Holocaust, I never mentioned genocide and all that crap that these people are trying to fit me up with, and [I’m not] going to accept it.
“I’m going to kick back real hard, I think people are entitled to be reported properly.
“I’m not going to shy away from this appalling bias that says you can run this country on the basis that some are superior in breeding and DNA than others.”
His comments drew warnings from the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand about the use of such terminology by politicians.
“It is actually offensive to the memory of those who died and to those who survived in the Holocaust to start throwing around terms like ‘Holocaust’ or ‘Nazi’ willy-nilly,” Holocaust Centre of New Zealand spokesman Ben Kepes said.
Speaking this morning, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he had a conversation with Peters yesterday afternoon, but would not offer details on that conversation.
He continued to steer clear of any direct criticism of Peters, beyond saying “they were not comments I would make.”
“As I’ve been saying, I call on all political leaders of all political parties to watch the language because the rhetoric is damaging and it’s unhelpful and it causes division.”
Luxon was full of praise for Peters’ work as Foreign Minister, describing him as “doing an exceptionally good job in the foreign affairs space.”
However, Hipkins said Peters’ insistence on digging in over the issue showed Luxon had “absolutely no control” over his coalition partner.
“This is the reason I ruled out working with Winston Peters. He is uncontrollable. Ultimately though, the responsibility for that rests with Christopher Luxon. He is the Prime Minister and this is his deputy Prime Minister and his Minister of Foreign Affairs making incredible inflammatory comments.”
He said those comments were reported not just in New Zealand, but in international media. “I think Christopher Luxon should do more than just brush it off.”
At his post-Cabinet press conference yesterday, Luxon said he wouldn’t have used the same words as Peters and deemed them unhelpful.
Luxon cited comments from Labour leader Chris Hipkins calling his Government a “dictatorship” and Te Pāti Māori claiming the Government was run by white supremacists as examples of politicians using inflammatory language. He urged politicians to refrain from using such language.
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.
