Monica Hughes PhD
themariachiyears.substack.com
Winston Peters has been banned from New Zealand Parliament for two years because he met with anti-mandate protestors on Parliament grounds in late February.
Peters now represents the primary opposition to the Labour Party’s desperate attempt under Ardern to maintain its grip on power.
This is simply stunning. For those of you who aren’t Kiwis, Winston Peters is no ordinary politician in New Zealand. He is responsible for getting Ardern into power as Prime Minister in 2017 and has been the leader of the New Zealand First party since its inception nearly 30 years ago. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in Ardern’s first term (as well as for a National government in the 90s) and has been a Member of Parliament for over 35 years in total during his political career which spans over 4 decades.
It’s impossible to describe to Americans how irregular this development is. There isn’t really a counterpart in American politics due to the lack of important third parties in the US, but this turn of events would be somewhat akin to Nancy Pelosi banning a more erudite, more eloquent, and less partisan version of John McCain from Capitol Hill, assuming he was still alive.
Winston is practically an institution unto himself in New Zealand. Imagine something like a member of the Kennedy family who started his own political party and held the balance of power in various elections, alternately forming alliances with both sides of the political spectrum for decades.
To give you some idea of his personality, here is a three minute video clip Winston Peters on March 23, 2020 in an address to the nation just before the first lockdown due to covid-19, when he was still serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs for Ardern.
It took 1.5 to two years, but eventually, the contradictions and goalpost moving began to grate on Winston:
The Canadian trucker protest largely eclipsed the anti-mandate protestors in New Zealand, who were camped out on the Parliament grounds for over three weeks before they were violently forced off by police on March 1. The scenes there were just as bad as those in Canada.
Peters was the only politician to meet with protestors on Parliament grounds in late February, roughly a week before they were ejected:
It’s not just the Biden regime and Big Tech that is on a streak to silence and erase dissent or hide the popularity of political opposition.
I’m no fan of politicians. But it’s difficult for even me to argue that Winston does not care about New Zealanders and the future of the country.
Peters’ popularity will no doubt soar over this, so I predict that next, they may need to ban him from Facebook.
How fortunate that he has a Twitter account.
Somebody should tell Ardern, “The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”
Here is Winston in his own words:
I have found out that the Speaker of the House, Trevor Mallard, has trespassed me from parliament grounds for a period of two years.
This dictatorial behaviour by Mallard, supported by Labour, should be reserved for third world banana republics.
[…] What’s more astounding is that the Speaker of the House of Representatives in our country could possibly attempt to trespass former Members of Parliament – of whom some are leaders of political parties planning to run against the sitting government in around eighteen months’ time.
New Zealanders should not put up with this type of totalitarian behaviour from the Speaker – nor should the Prime Minister or Parliament.
It is because of this that I have taken legal advice and will continue to do so. Speaker Mallard has lost the plot and will continue to do so if he thinks he can enforce his unreasonable and unlawful decision.
The future of our country depends upon good people refusing to allow the likes of Mallard and like-minded cronies to force New Zealand down this pathway of madness without fighting back.
The BFD