Winston Peters on why New Zealand is too politically correct

Winston Peters. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Winston Peters is back and he's worried New Zealand is "far too politically correct".

The New Zealand First leader used the party's annual general meeting recently to bemoan the use of the word "Aotearoa" by "people in high and mighty places".

Kiwis should be asked whether they want to change the name of New Zealand, he told The Country's Jamie Mackay.

"I want to know and ask everybody … when did they ever ask you? Who gives the Climate Change Commission the right to change the name of this country? Or the New Zealand Transport Agency the right to change the name of this country?

"It's the people of New Zealand who get that right and not these people in high and mighty places for an overbearing autocracy who just decide we know best and you're going to do what we want you to do."

Peters was also unhappy with the Government's decision to make an official apology for the dawn raids targeting Pasifika people in the 1970s.

"We've gone far too politically correct.

"Everything I've seen about that is not true – it's false," he said.

Peters maintained there was no involvement from politicians and the programme was only stopped because people were mistaking Māori for Pacific Islanders.

"How can these people be allowed by, dare I say it, my friends in the media to get away with trying to rewrite history when it was demonstrably false."

When Labour formed a coalition with New Zealand First, Peters' party was seen as a "handbrake" on some of its policies.

Mackay asked Peters how he would have handled the recent EV rebate scheme, which could see farmers and tradies penalised for driving utes.

"The feebate thing got stopped by us because we said to them, you cannot even demonstrate the economic case for this, because what you're actually doing…is using conventional energy to power up your so-called new energy."

The "most extreme" example of this, was when the Department of Conservation powered up an EV using a diesel generator, Peters said.

Listen below:

"You see the kind of ridiculous, glaring stuff that you friends in the media should have picked up – but did not."

The EV rebate scheme should get farmers and tradies "seriously worried" as it didn't "stack up" economically, Peters said.

He said there was no supply chain of electricity for EVs in the South Island and many parts of the provinces.

If the EV rebate scheme was "the great new answer" Peters asked why the Government hadn't converted its fleet yet.

"It's do as I say, not as I do."

Also in today's interview: Peters defended his decision to not retire at the age of 76, and said calling the National Party a bunch of "sex maniacs" was a "throwaway line".