Duncan:
The latest political poll has NZ First below the threshold to stay in parliament, the party dropping from 5% to 3.3% in this latest poll. The same poll has National ahead of Labour by 2% points and joining us now is NZ First leader, Deputy Prime Minister, Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters. He loves polls, which I think means that he hates polls, especially polls which happen at this level which probably mean nothing, actually, to be honest. But anyway, Winston – good morning.
Winston:
Good morning.
Duncan:
Nice to have you on the programme. Good to see you. Does it hold much store to you – this Colmar Brunton poll? Does it have any credibility?
Winston:
They should be in front of the court – under the Sales of Goods Act for the fraud that they are perpetrating on you and the public.
Duncan:
In what way?
Winston:
These polls are just a sham. I’ve got a set of polls, just the other day, which are the reverse of that. And they’ve done that where NZ First is concerned for decades. Why am I still here if they’re right? Let me tell you…
Duncan:
Why is yours not a sham, but theirs is?
Winston:
They don’t even… no, let me tell you, let me tell you. Do you want a video of it?
Duncan:
Of course.
Winston:
Well, if you’re going to ask a question about political parties, and you say, “If there’s an election tomorrow, would we vote for Labour, National or the Greens”, and leave out NZ First – what’s the likely consequence?
Duncan:
Who asked that?
Winston:
Colmar Brunton.
Duncan:
Oh, well, they are hopeless then.
Winston:
Well, of course, they’re hopeless, but more importantly – they’re a fraud. You could ask, of the Prime Ministers, who do you like? Jacinda Ardern or Simon Bridges? What are the chances of someone else getting in there when half your pollsters are doing that? I mean they go out there and put in front of the public and call themselves respectable.
My challenge to them is: if you’re in any way right – given the way you’ve polled a party called NZ First – all these decades – what on earth are we doing in Government and me here – Deputy Prime Minister?
Duncan:
Because you chose Jacinda Ardern and the Labour Party. And how’s that going?
Winston:
No, no you couldn’t have made that choice without you had a poll which was totally contrary to their so-called polling. And we’ve done it decade after decade. I’ll tell you of elections where they’ve had us sitting on 1% and we were almost on 11 when the poll was over four weeks later. That’s why they’re a fraud.
Duncan:
You’re a fool to write off Winston Peters?
Winston:
No, no you’re a fool to listen to them.
Duncan:
(Indistinct)… I agree.
Winston:
On your very valuable programme I just wasted about three minutes talking about…
Duncan:
Someone else.
Winston:
Arrogant morons.
Duncan:
Well, it was worth it then. Um… what did you call them?
Winston:
Unreconstructed. Because they’ve been told this countless times. How their polls inflate certain parties and deflate other parties – they do it purposefully. They do nothing about constructing it properly, so I’m just saying… they’re unreconstructed arrogant morons.
Duncan:
Thank you Winston. Um… now…
Winston:
Now hang on – if you were in my situation of having to put up with this year after year, decade after decade, election after election…
Duncan:
I’ve seen it, I’ve reported on it. I’ve had my own polls on this. I never wrote you off. Um… It’s the correction of the decade isn’t it?