NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

John Roughan: Peters looks intent on turning the clock back

John Roughan
By John Roughan
Opinion Writer·NZ Herald·
13 Oct, 2017 04:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Winston Peters' self-imposed deadline to decide which major party to put into power has arrived. So after a week of coalition talks who’s he likely to choose.
John Roughan
Opinion by John Roughan
Former editorial writer and columnist, NZ Herald
Learn more

Towards the end of his talks this week Winston Peters looked unlike I've ever seen him. Serious. Not the angry serious that has been the trademark of his long, strange career. This time he looked lost in thought as he faced a camera, almost pensive.

I don't remember him looking like this when he went into coalition with National in 1996 or with Labour in 2005. When he was sworn in with Labour at Government House he looked awkward in his pin stripes, like a guest at the wrong wedding. This time could be different.

He looked like a man who, at 72, suddenly knew this is probably his last shot at doing something worthwhile for all those years in politics.

His roles in those previous governments had been ceremonial really. National let him be "Treasurer" to read Bill Birch's budgets but Birch insisted on NZ First having another associate finance minister because he knew Winston wouldn't do the work. As Foreign Minister with Labour he was kept well away from trade negotiations handled by Phil Goff.
This time he sounded genuinely less interested in his personal position than the policies he wants.

Genuine is not a word I have previously used for Peters. I met him when he came into Parliament in 1984. As a reporter, I didn't enjoy dealing with him. He made himself Parliament's best-known muck-raker. People would send him scandals real or imagined and he knew how to make news, usually by darkly suggesting he knew more than he did.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He would wear the angry face on TV but when you interviewed him off camera he would make the same accusations with a knowing smirk. I found him false.

He gets along well with reporters, by the way. The oddly aggressive way he responds to their every question is another charade he does for the public. It also conceals a deficiency. His mind is just not quick enough to provide him with safe and sensible answers on the spot, an essential skill in a Prime Minister.

So I can believe he is less interested in a position this time than policies. This is not a comfortable thought.

It has been a joy to live in a country open and confident in the world, with a strong, stable economy that is attracting our children back home. I like immigration too. Our population was stagnant for the last 25 years of last century and it is only in the last five years that we've been attracting record numbers.

Peters is probably going to be able to put a stop to that. He wants to put the clock back 33 years to July 14, 1984, when he thinks the country went off the rails. He said as much on RNZ shortly before the election.

Discover more

Opinion

John Roughan: Well, here's how I'm voting

15 Sep 05:00 PM
Opinion

John Roughan: America living with electoral consequences

22 Sep 05:00 PM
Opinion

John Roughan: A coalition of losers could happen

29 Sep 04:00 PM
Opinion

John Roughan: A fourth election victory is truly historic

06 Oct 04:00 PM

Bill English was aged 22 in 1984, Steven Joyce was 21, both old enough to have known the economy Peters would like to restore. Grant Robertson was 12, Jacinda Ardern was 4. I shudder to think of them negotiating economic policy with our living fossil of Muldoonism.

When Peters returned to Parliament in 1984 (he had been briefly there until 1981) he was 39. Unlike most of National's younger MPs, he was not attracted to free markets. National was a liberal conservative party and Win Peters, as he was known then, was definitely on the conservative wing. He knew what he had been taught and didn't trust new theories. He liked the country he grew up in and saw no reason it should change. He didn't like the new Maori thinking either.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

To read the NZ First manifesto for the recent election was to like wandering into a museum. There were policies to revive manufacturing, restore export tax incentives, change the Reserve Bank to take its focus off inflation and manage the exchange rate, block foreign ownership of land and some assets, direct the NZ Super Fund to buy back privatised assets and issue a great deal of orders about pricing and investment and development to airports and seaports, to KiwiRail and to banks and financial services.

There was also some uncharacteristic environmental and energy planks written for the Greens, and plenty of handouts for horse racing and more benefits on the super gold card. Doubtless I will get free doctor's visits I don't need.

It has been galling to watch good people such as English and Ardern pay respects to Peters. "Respect" has been their byword since election night. Truth usually gets distorted when he is on the scene. The truth is, MPs on both sides of the house have always had more respect for the other than for Winston Peters.

Now he gets to choose our government. I'll be on leave in Australia next week, I hope I'll want to come back.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

From the theatre to a line mechanic: Hastings woman aims to inspire women into electrical trade

02 Jul 04:05 AM
AucklandUpdated

Dead baby found in Auckland wheelie bin, woman in custody

02 Jul 03:57 AM
New Zealand

Motueka prepares for floods

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

From the theatre to a line mechanic: Hastings woman aims to inspire women into electrical trade

From the theatre to a line mechanic: Hastings woman aims to inspire women into electrical trade

02 Jul 04:05 AM

'They just treat me like "one of the guys" but still realise I have different strengths.'

Dead baby found in Auckland wheelie bin, woman in custody

Dead baby found in Auckland wheelie bin, woman in custody

02 Jul 03:57 AM
Motueka prepares for floods

Motueka prepares for floods

'Potential to cause fatal accidents': Close to 1km of copper cabling stolen

'Potential to cause fatal accidents': Close to 1km of copper cabling stolen

02 Jul 03:43 AM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP