Empty tubthumping? Winston Peters yet to hear from Chumbawumba and Bob Carr

NZ First leader Winston Peters is smiling after appearing to escape multiple legal threats. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Deputy Prime Minister and NZ First Leader Winston Peters had a litigious start to the year, attracting legal threats from the band Chumbawumba and former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr.

But months later, neither Peters himself, nor his party, have received any indication that Chumbawumba or Carr plan to take legal action against him, suggesting their earlier antics this year were just empty tubthumping.

In March of this year, it was reported Peters and NZ First would be forwarded a cease and desist by APRA AMCOS, the music licensing body, to stop Peters and NZ First from playing the song Tubthumping at campaign events.

In a separate incident in May, Carr confirmed an intention to take legal action against Peters after Peters made allegedly defamatory remarks on RNZ about Carr and his views on the Aukus security pact.

Soon after the interview on RNZ, Carr sent a letter to Peters confirming he intended to take action.

But since that letter, on May 2, both potential actions have gone quiet.

A spokesperson for Peters said this week that “no correspondence has ever been received by Mr Peters office or New Zealand First from representatives of the band, Chumbawumba”.

Peters and NZ First told the Herald, they had not heard from Chumbawumba or APRA AMCOS. In fact, they have received no correspondence relating to the Chumbawumba issue at all. The Herald asked APRA AMCOS whether any cease and desist was ever sent, but, as appears to be the pattern, a response was not received by deadline.

Carr also appears to have gone quiet.

“With regards to Mr Carr, since the receipt of a letter from Mr Carr’s Australian lawyers on May 2 outlining instructions to his lawyers to explore legal action, no further correspondence has been received,” Peters’ spokesperson said.

A representative for Carr’s office in Australia said that they didn’t know whether Carr would be taking the issue further.

Not knocked down, Peters is up again in the Northern Hemisphere this week, visiting Japan and South Korea.

In South Korea, he had talks with Foreign Minister Cho Tae-Yul, and National Security Adviser Chang Ho Jin and in Japan, he represented New Zealand at the 10th Japan-Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting (PALM10), hosted by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo.

Thomas Coughlan is deputy political editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the Press Gallery since 2018.