Election 2020: Winston Peters visits Whanganui

Winston Peters with students from Ratana School. Photo / Ethan Griffiths

Winston Peters visited Whanganui on Monday, giving his first big speech of the campaign targeted at seniors.

The New Zealand First leader spoke at the War Memorial Hall to a group of 100 supporters. With him was Darroch Ball, the NZ First list MP based in Palmerston North, as well as Antony Woollams, standing in Rangitīkei.

Peters said seniors in New Zealand had been treated poorly by every government consistently over the last 30 years.

"Imagine if people 65 and over stopped doing all the voluntary work all around our country. It'd collapse tomorrow. But no no, we've got all these people in Parliament, including woke blokes, who are ageist," he said.

"To some, seniors are not a priority, and other parties have a history of taking from our seniors."

After three years in government, Peters said he believed he had achieved a lot for the Whanganui region.

"Our priorities for Whanganui are not just being here today, but I came down here for the port upgrade, the joint announcement of $42 million for KiwiRail and we've also got more projects to do with the Sarjeant.

"There have been huge investments here in Whanganui, because we haven't forgotten the provinces."

Despite being focused on Whanganui, there is no New Zealand First candidate in the electorate.

When asked why, Peters said it came down to whether or not they could find one.

"We put up candidates where we can find the right person. We don't put up any old candidate until we've got the right candidate. If we don't get one, we don't put one up."

Peters is contesting his 15th election, rejecting any suggestion this may be his last.

After a brief chat with voters, Peters hit the road again in his trademark bus, bound for the Bay of Plenty.