One Man Poll: Peters' supporters stand by their man

Patrick Poihipi. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Old populists never die in the minds of their true believers, even when the evidence strongly suggests they are as fallible as the "insiders" they condemn.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters may have been censured by Parliament for providing "false or misleading information on a return of pecuniary interest".

But to Rotorua sawmill operator Patrick Poihipi, 32, "it's people trying to gang up on him and the media blowing things out of proportion".

"He does what he wants to do," says Poihipi, a father of three who puts his children at the top of the list of things that matter most and is a long-term Peters supporter. "He's just different."

Retired Invercargill tailor Tom Pyne, 80, is grateful for the higher old-age pension Peters wrung out of the Labour Government.

"If he wants to muck around with money, I don't have too much of a problem with that."

The 14 Peters followers in this sample have a median age of 50. Ten are or were employees, three are self-employed and one is a beneficiary.

They are hard to pigeonhole in any way except that they tend to share Peters' attitude of being "outsiders".

"We have too many parasites, people whose status and money depends on how many people they have under them rather than what goods and services they provide. I mean bureaucrats and politicians," says Palmerston North freelance editor Anne Fullerton, 60.

Many followers, like Cambridge racehorse owner Peter Stewart, 65, can reel off lists of Peters' achievements.

In this survey, only two of Peters' 2005 voters have abandoned him this year. Two others are thinking about it.

Against that, seven of his 14 definite supporters did not vote for him last time. His "trial" at the hands of his peers appears to have won him more voters than he has lost.