That’s right, the man jetting around the world on New Zealand’s behalf like a springchicken was born all the way back in 1945 before World War II had ended.
It’s quite remarkable that only 2½ years separate Peters and US President Joe Biden, who is so doddery he sometimes forgets to finish his own sentences.
He’s flying around the world like there’s something to prove. Tonga, the Cook Islands, Samoa. Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, India. Egypt, Sweden, Poland, Brussels. New York and Washington.
That’s the travel he’s done in just the few weeks since we all came back from the summer break. That’s more travel than his predecessor Nanaia Mahuta managed in an 18-month bracket I looked at but it’s also possible it’s more than she managed in her entire term as Foreign Minister.
And that’s not even counting the dignitaries he’s hosted here – most notably the very-important-to-NZ Chinese Foreign Minister – and phone calls he’s been part of.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, who turned 79 on Thursday. Photo / Mark Mitchell
If he was in the corporate world, Christopher Luxon would give him a bonus because he is meeting his KPIs. What was point 18 of Luxon’s action plan? “Raise the energy New Zealand brings to key relationships through international engagements.” Peters is definitely raising that energy.
He would probably be extremely irritated at us even talking about his age but it really does make his schedule all the more impressive. It’s hard to imagine any other MP hitting the ground running in this job as easily as he has – and literally every other MP is younger than him.
And it’s showing up the utterly embarrassing experiment of putting Mahuta in the job, which was presumably done to make Jacinda Ardern look cool and progressive while ignoring the fact that Mahuta wasn’t keen on travel and had a strange understanding of international relations.
Peters has something of an advantage here. He’s done the job twice before. Once under Helen Clark and once under Ardern (before Mahuta).
And he’s almost always been good at it. In the Clark era, he famously charmed then-US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice into calling NZ an ally again. In the Ardern era, he flew to Washington and gave a speech bollocking the US for ignoring the South Pacific, demanding they come back and then ramping up spending on interoperable defence assets. He was, of course, bang on.
He’s yet to be judged on the Luxon era but he reckons he’s close to settling the partnership with Nato and seems to be making headway with Aukus. You might not agree with the direction he’s headed in – which is firmly US-bound – but if this is his plan and he executes it, he can rightly consider that a success.
It’s probably hard for some voters to imagine him being any good at anything because the Peters they know is a bit aggro at the media and often causes trouble. But he can also be charming, well-informed, great company and helpful. That’s the version senior members of the National Party are raving about. It’s also the version he clearly trots out when he’s offshore representing NZ.
I don’t know why I’m surprised he’s this good at the job. It’s probably because we’ve had too much of him acting up for the cameras lately. And it’s probably also because his predecessor was so woeful.
But there’s no arguing that, when it comes to raising the energy, the county’s current oldest MP is doing it.
