Winston Peters’ bad behaviour overshadowing Christopher Luxon, David Seymour- Audrey Young

OPINION

There are some people who are never happy - even when they win.

A particular friend of mine who bets on the horses is more miserable when he wins than when he loses because if only he had put more on it, he would have won more money.

It reminds me of Winston Peters, who should be savouring his great comeback in the past week since the Government was announced but is determined to snatch misery from the jaws of celebration when it comes to the media.

Perhaps he blames the media for his win. Maybe he believes that if the media had covered him more during the campaign, he would have had more MPs, maybe even beaten Act and David Seymour.

What is more likely is that if he had behaved as badly before the election as he has since the election, he would not have made it back at all.

But he wasn’t badly behaved during the campaign. Relatively speaking, he was unusually good-tempered during much of his campaign appearances.

And contrary to claims, many of his campaign events were covered by the media especially in the final few weeks after Christopher Luxon explicitly said National could work with Peters’ party, New Zealand First.

The strain of behaving well during the campaign must have taken its toll though. And the morning after the election, the smiles turned to snarls about media coverage.

He laid low for three weeks until the final results were known. In the three-week negotiations that followed, he was occasionally truculent but largely obliging to the stakeouts at the Auckland hotel.

And then he snapped again. And again, and again against the media at the release of the coalition documents, the swearing-in of ministers and the first Cabinet meeting. Each time he created headlines that overshadowed the event such as accusing the “moronic” media of losing the election, of asking stupid questions, questioning RNZ and TVNZ’s independence, and of commercial media having been bribed by a Public Interest Journalism Fund (PIJF).

Everyone is aware of Peters’ capacity to make drama when there is none, but there has been some surprise at his nasty tone, and his selfish disregard for how big the moment was for his other coalition partners, particularly Luxon.

It was as though in these three moments of ceremonial unity among former adversaries, Peters needed an enemy.

The first cabinet meeting in the Beehive, on Tuesday. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Peters himself rejected a suggestion on Newstalk ZB’s The Country that he has a particular problem with young women journalists. The suggestion is a little unfair because, in my opinion, he has problems with older women journalists as well.

In the same interview, he blamed the media for the Auckland lockdown and suggested New Zealand could have been well on the way to a free trade agreement with the United States, if only former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had said the right thing after her meeting with US President Donald Trump.

Ardern, incidentally, has never criticised Peters, her deputy, since he was voted out of Parliament in 2020.

That is not to say the media don’t sometimes deserve criticism.

But Labour MP Willie Jackson probably spoke for many when he said he had watched Peters through the years “but it’s like he is not the same guy”.

Jackson told Stuff Peters was obsessed by the PIJF and believed he was spending too much time with conspiracy theorists.

The worry for the other partners in the Government may be that there appears to be no one to rein in Peters. His caucus no longer has the likes of old-timers such as Tracey Martin and Ron Mark who could tell him when they thought he had overstepped the mark.

Shane Jones, as a relative newcomer, does not have the sort of relationship in which he can pull Peters into line.

Peters’ former chief of staff, Jon Johanssen, is back working with Peters although not in the same capacity. And besides, how can anyone be expected to tell the most experienced politician in New Zealand that he needs to behave better?

In Peters’ defence, maybe he just needs a long holiday.