Election 2023: NZ First’s Winston Peters ignores questions as he arrives in Wellington

New Zealand First’s leader Winston Peters is now in Wellington ahead of negotiation talks with National and Act.

However, representatives from his potential partners in government will be hoping he is more talkative than when he faced journalists upon touching down at Wellington Airport, where he ignored all questions.

Arriving early this afternoon, Peters strode through the airport lounge without engaging with media.

Some members of the public cheered and clapped as the 78-year-old politician walked by. Others called out to him.

“Go Winston, we love you, woohoo,” one woman cried.

“Come on Winny, keep the Gold Card,” one man said, prompting a wave from Peters.

NZ First leader Winston Peters arrives at his party's base in Wellington alongside campaign manager Darroch Ball (right). Photo / Mark Mitchell

The only words Peters spoke was to say “kia ora” to a man who’d said the same to him.

“Give those Act Party b*****ds hell,” another man said as Peters passed the baggage carousel.

He was then whisked away in a taxi without a word.

Peters continued his silence when confronted by journalists outside his party’s current base in Wellington. The only statement he gave to the various questions was “get out of my way”.

Questions he faced included whether he’d spoken to National leader Christopher Luxon, what Luxon might have said to him, how long he was planning to stay in Wellington, whether he’d been offered the Speaker of the House role, and when he would make his next statement. He answered none.

Peters’ approach mirrored the one taken by Luxon, who has repeated his commitment to doing coalition negotiations “differently” by not discussing them publicly.

Luxon said yesterday he disagreed with the “blow-by-blow” negotiations going “through the media” following past elections.

Luxon suggested that, contrary to what the other two negotiating partners might want, he was happy to take his time and run down the clock until special votes are counted before doing a deal.

NZ First leader Winston Peters did not answer questions from journalists on his arrival. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Luxon would use that time to build relationships, he said.

“The approach is very simple, I’m going to use the next three weeks until the special votes are fully counted to actually progress the relationships and the arrangements with each party, the way we work with them will be different,” Luxon said.

However, this was not exactly different to how prior negotiations were conducted. In 2017, Peters regularly spoke to media during negotiations, mainly because they were camped outside the lifts beneath his office, the leaders of the other two parties did not.

Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.