OPINION
“Today, I ruled out working with New Zealand First and Winston Peters after this election and I wanted to let you know why.”
Chris Hipkins email to the party faithful 27 August 2023
Spoiler alert – Hipkins isn’t exactly honest about his motivation for targeting NZ First instead of his much larger opponent, the National Party; in his email to the party faithful last weekend he asks for financial support for Labour to take the fight to Winston Peters.
Peters must be over the target to have attracted Hipkins’s attention. Why would Hipkins go after Peters when National’s movement up the polls to 37% is surely a bigger threat than NZ First who haven’t yet cracked 5%?
When Jacinda Ardern was in charge Peters and NZ First were, to all intents and purposes, dead and buried in the political wilderness. From 2020 onwards Ardern scarcely gave Peters a mention and neither did her well-trained media lapdogs.
But lately Winston has attracted media attention and resonated with the public by promising, among other things, to restore our energy resources, wrap up the Waitangi Tribunal and end co-governance. This hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Labour Party.
Peters hasn’t yet risen from the dead but his trajectory is promising. He’s stopped stinking at least and if he does achieve a return to parliament his success could be compared to the biblical Lazarus.
When Jesus told his followers to roll away the stone in front of Lazarus’s grave Martha protested saying “Lord, by this time he stinks, it’s been four days!” Martha was a faithful believer but even she was dubious about Jesus’ ability to raise Lazarus from the dead. Nine months ago Winston Peters was dead and buried but someone recently breathed life into the old dog.
The public perception changed when Peters started talking about issues important to voters. Although Peters is late to the party, Hipkins identifies him as a more virulent threat to Labour’s success at the next election than their traditional opponent, the National Party.
Hipkins does what this government is so good at: lying about their own shortcomings and blaming these on anyone standing in their way.
Hipkins accuses Peters of the fear and division his own government brutally inflicted on New Zealand during the Covid years and afterwards. The current government is surely the most divisive, autocratic and tone-deaf political party in New Zealand’s history, and here is Hipkins accusing Peters of exactly what his government is guilty of.
“The rhetoric we’ve heard from Winston Peters this year is a style of cheap, divisive politics imported from overseas. It’s designed to cause fear and division within our communities. It does not fit with my values or my vision for New Zealand’s future, and that’s why I’ve made this decision.”
Hipkins should get out more and talk to the people instead of mouthing off about values and vision.
The reason that Peters is a threat is that, despite a coterie of grudge holders still blaming Peters’s 2017 decision to go with Labour, political polls reflect an upward movement for both the National Party and NZ First. The difference between which party is more effective is Luxon and the Nats sitting on their hands over the hard issues that Peters isn’t afraid of tackling. What’s Peters got to lose in the dogfight between a chihuahua and a rottweiler?