New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is preparing an “answer” intended to silence speculation about whether he’d govern again with Labour as questions mount ahead of next year’s election.
During an end-of-year interview yesterday, Peters spoke extensively about feeling wronged by those who were in the “inner sanctum” of the Labour Party during his time in Government with them between 2017 and 2020, including Dame Jacinda Ardern and current Labour leader Chris Hipkins.
His criticisms of the party, which included repeating allegations that key information was kept secret from him, prompted the Herald to ask why, considering these views, he would not rule out working with Labour after next year’s election.
“I want to know why, here we are in the darn campaign, the only party being asked every day about the next election is us,” Peters said.
The Herald: “Then why not answer it?”
“I’m going to tell you what, very shortly before Christmas, we’re going to give you an answer and we’re going to stick to it all year.”
As to whether it will state NZ First’s position on working with Labour, he responded: “No, I’m going to give you an answer to shut you all down and start getting back the focus about politics being about policy and about issues, and not coalitions.”
The Herald attempted to extract more from Peters, including whether he would reveal whether he might be seeking to sit on the crossbenches.
“Did I not say just before Christmas? Here we are here and it’s Thursday and you want me to tell you now.”
The Herald understands this planned “answer” is unlikely to say with which parties NZ First would or would not work, but will act as a stock-standard line for responding to such questions in future.
Given NZ First’s traditional “kingmaker” status and history of working in Government with both Labour and National, there has been growing interest in Peters’ perspective ahead of the 2026 election.
He has permanently ruled out working with Hipkins, but hasn’t answered whether he would be willing to work with Labour should it change its leader. Labour has refused to set out its preferred coalition partners until closer to the election.
Questions were raised in November after Act leader David Seymour said it appeared Peters was “lining up for a different kind of coalition” after Peters said he would seek to repeal the Regulatory Standards Act – for which NZ First had just voted - if re-elected into power at the election.
“So if he wants to do this, he’s got to go with Labour. If his goal is to get rid of the Regulatory Standards Act, he’s not going to get votes from us to do that, so he’d have to go with Labour.”
After Seymour’s comments, the Herald repeatedly asked Peters whether he was open to working with Labour after the election. He would not answer.
During yesterday’s interview, he said “no one would have heard of” Ardern, former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson or “sausage roll eater Hipkins” were it “not for the fact that I gave them a chance”.
He stands by his view that there was a “long litany of actions” withheld from him during his time in Government with Labour.
In the past, he has specifically mentioned the He Puapua report (responding to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), though Labour has disputed that was kept from him deliberately.
“Surely one wise guy said, for God’s sake, you cannot treat another coalition partner like that,” he said.
Peters also repeatedly compared Ardern unfavourably to former Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark, who he said “kept her word” when they worked together.
Asked if there was anyone in the current Labour Party he could trust, Peters responded that there were “some good people”, but they had been “thinned out”.
“They can’t even find half a Cabinet now. Have a good, hard look. There are people sitting there who couldn’t run the corner dairy, couldn’t run the school tuck shop, they just have got no skills in anything at all, never had their own business.”
Peters said Labour MP Damien O’Connor and the recently retired David Parker were friends, but “[Labour] haven’t got enough of them”.
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s Chief Political Reporter, based in the Press Gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office. He was a finalist this year for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.