Audrey Young: Peters' past shapes present potential

Winston Peters stepped from his limo in Suva last night looking as cool as an ice cube despite wearing a grey suit and tie in the 30C heat.

This will be a testing week for Mr Peters, and not just heat-wise.

His first foray into the Pacific as Foreign Minister may be a good indication of whether he will gain respect for doing a decent job.

Fiji is an appropriate place to start. It is important, it is complex and it is prickly. (Mr Peters might feel at home.)

Fiji also offers a fresh start for Mr Peters after his media wars overshadowed his first few months in the job.

Helen Clark has made it clear she wants him to desist from elevating his private vendettas with elements of the news media into public events.

The aim, surely, for Mr Peters is not to match his seasoned predecessor, Phil Goff, but to do his job differently - to add value in ways that Mr Goff and even Helen Clark could not.

Power-wise, Fiji is almost in a state of limbo, with an early election due to be called at any time by Laisenia Qarase to renew his mandate to perhaps more firmly handle the unpredictable military commander, Frank Bainimarama.

Despite his public threats, Bainimarama dare not seize power and Qarase dare not sack him for his outbursts.

Mr Peters will meet them both.

That is something Helen Clark probably could not do, nor Phil Goff.

Helen Clark said yesterday that there was no big deal about Mr Peters meeting the military leader.

That would be true for Mr Peters but not for her.

It would be inconceivable for her or a Labour Foreign Minister to meet someone who was threatening the rule of law in Fiji, albeit hollowly. Labour stands on its dignity and principles.

Mr Peters has cut-through and, when he summons it, charm.

Labour Sports Minister Trevor Mallard snubbed Fiji's games at the 2001 rugby Sevens because the military had installed an unconstitutional Prime Minister to end the Speight coup; Mr Peters invited Commodore Bainimarama to join him for dinner at the Green Parrot in Wellington.

Admittedly Mr Peters was in Opposition then, and their previous social encounters go some way to explaining their plan to meet in Fiji this week.

But the arrangement is also an example of how Mr Peters could make a difference, with greater personal connection to people.

That is especially so in the Pacific, given his status as arguably the best-known Polynesian politician around.

NZ First's foreign policy has always advocated a stronger relationship with the Pacific. This is his chance to show how.