OPINION

Winston Peters dropped a massive policy announcement on the weekend; one that was barely covered by most of the media. It is an announcement that no other serious party can deliver on because their credibility on these issues is all shot to hell. They have handed this playing field over to Winston Peters.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is promising to spend hundreds of millions of dollars compensating people who lost their jobs due to Covid-19 mandates and those proven to be injured by the vaccine.

He says compensation will likely be determined through a new 12-month inquiry into the pandemic in New Zealand, one that will replace the ongoing Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid, which Peters says is too limited in its scope.

However, Peters’ promise comes with an acknowledgment that if the inquiry found compensation wasn’t necessary, he wouldn’t challenge it.

“You should listen to an inquiry if you’ve got confidence in it and the answer is, one would have to listen to that,” Peters said

“Though I find it inconceivable that an inquiry set up for a legitimate purpose, understanding what has happened to some people, will come up with that finding but you always have the prospect that the inquiry may not go in the way you think.”

His comments come after Peters voiced his commitment to compensating anyone injured by the vaccine after being asked by a member of the public during a meeting in Orewa, north of Auckland.

NZ Herald

Ardern’s inquiry was rigged to ensure a result favourable to her and her legacy.

In a press conference after the meeting, Peters clarified he intended to compensate people who were vax-injured and those who lost their jobs due to Covid-19 mandates.

He couldn’t put a number on how many people could be eligible, but estimated it could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Any compensation wouldn’t occur until after a 12-month rapid inquiry into Covid which would replace the current inquiry Peters intended to scrap, claiming its terms of reference were too narrow.

The existing inquiry, announced last year by then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, would not assess individual claims such as a person losing their job due to the mandates.

All parties supported the inquiry at the time but some did express concerns about its scope.

NZ Herald

This is where all parties currently in the parliament are compromised: they went along to get along. They condemned themselves.

The reporter, from the tone of his article, seems to imply that ‘there is no limit to the promises Peters will make as he attempts to get his hands back on power’.

But with this policy, Winston has potentially got the government, media and opposition parties in a suplex, because, according to them, there were very few injuries, the vaccine was ‘safe and effective’ and therefore there shouldn’t be a problem with his proposal.

But they know, and they won’t acknowledge, that there is a huge problem.

Winston has them cornered on this one and, as he is the only minor party that can get over the five per cent threshold, this should effectively snuff out the plethora of freedom-style parties as their supporters clamber aboard Winston’s bus. No other bus can accommodate these people.

Winston can hoover up those votes and give David Seymour deserved conniptions.

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As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news,...