If you pay attention to what goes on in New Zealand politics at all, you’d know the Beehive contains more drama than a high school theatre kid friend group. The politicians that we trust with our country with are… volatile, to say the least.
What’s ever-so-slightly concerning is how high-school-style drama has recently encapsulated New Zealand’s internal politics and foreign affairs. The culprit? Why, it’s none other than Winston Peters.
This time last year, Peters seemed to have completely abandoned any possibility of New Zealand First ever forming a coalition with Labour again. The implication was that he committed to National coalitions from here on out.
Yet when trouble started brewing in the National caucus, questions of Christopher Luxon’s leadership bubbled to the surface in a confidence vote he called on himself, Winston Peters called the move an “ego trip”.
Nicola Willis responded to the statement (which definitely did not further any doubt in regard to Luxon’s leadership) by telling voters that a vote for New Zealand First “could result in a Labour-Te-Pāti-Māori-Green government, and all he is doing is courting votes and trying to cause mischief that way”. Harsh.
Luxon then spoke for himself, criticising how Winston Peters carried an “anti-immigrant bias” with him as he opposed National’s Free Trade Agreement with India. To put this into perspective, even the Labour Party supported the agreement after adjustments were made to enhance the rights of migrant workers.
Willis might have a point in how Winston Peters is playing for no one’s team. New Zealand First’s new “socially conservative” identity seems to be working in their favour, now polling at 13% after winning only 6% of votes in the 2023 election. The preferred Prime Minister gap between Peters and Luxon is getting thinner and thinner, with 12% of Verian poll respondents choosing Peters, compared to only 16% choosing Luxon. Kind of like in Mean Girls, when Cady started getting more popular than Regina. Winston Peters is a threat to National.
Peters continued to play the political popularity game in late April, this time using none other than the Iran war as his pawn. In an Official Information Act request from NZ Herald, Peters released emails that made out that Luxon wished to shift New Zealand’s stance on the war to one of active support, in alignment with the stances of Australia and Canada. This, of course, goes against public opinion, with 87% of polled New Zealanders believing either strongly or somewhat that our military should avoid direct involvement. Winston Peters, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, called support for the war “imprudent” – making him look like the good guy.
Luxon was definitely not happy that these emails were released, his spokesperson telling reporters that Peters “put politics ahead of the national interest” and that the emails did not represent his views.
Peters went back and forth on admitting that he made a mistake by releasing the emails, before deciding that a mistake was in fact made. Former Labour MP and Minster of Foreign Affairs Phil Goff called it “no mistake”.
“He knew that exposing Luxon’s view would be damaging to Luxon and he wanted it to be.”
It’s fair to say that right now, the relationship between National and New Zealand First isn’t exactly good. In an election year, National wants to present itself as the source of New Zealand’s stability. Winston Peters is doing everything in his power to discredit that presentation. This goes against the expectations of a coalition partner, but it looks like Winston Peters is more interested in looking out for number one.
