NZ First leader Winston Peters’ state of the nation speech in Christchurch had barely begun when it descended into chaos, with one protester demanding New Zealand pull funding from an agency that helps Palestinians.
The disruption was the first of many, with the marathon speech – organisers set down a whole hour for it – disrupted more than half a dozen times by protesters on both sides of the war in Gaza.
Peters gave as good as he got, calling protesters “left-wing fascists” and “communist, fascist, and anti-democratic losers”.
The entrance to the event was guarded by three separate protests: one on each side of the Greyhound racing ban and a third protest in support of the Palestinian cause.
Peters had only just begun the marathon speech when a protestor called out “stop funding UNRWA”.
UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and delivers aid to Palestinians.
New Zealand, like many countries, is a contributor to the scheme. Funding to the agency was suspended by many countries, and placed under review by New Zealand, after 10 employees were accused by Israel of involvement in the October 7 terror attacks. It has since been restored.
About 10 people were removed from the protest. One called Peters “a disgrace to the country”.
Another, one of the last to be ejected, yelled “f**k you Winnie” as she was hauled out by security.
“I’m going to spend more time in Christchurch and Canterbury, this is fascinating stuff,” Peters said in response.
Peters clearly anticipated trouble. The written speech, distributed to media as Peters began, included one of his favourite retorts — one he has been using for years.
“Well, we have news for [the protesters] and it’s all bad – or as Elvis Presley once sang – ‘looking for trouble you’ve come to the right place’,” Peters said.
He repeatedly called critics “fascists”.
“[W]e are going to defend our democracy and we will throw all of those fascists out,” Peters said. In another part of the speech he called critics “anti-democratic Marxist whingers”.
The content of the speech itself was focused on attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion and attacking the former Labour Government for the state of the economy the coalition inherited.
He attacked Labour for its union ties and the funding it received from unions.
He described the positive claims made of the economy by Labour prior to the election an “outright litany of lies”.
Labour’s claims at the time were based on Treasury’s Prefu forecasts, which showed no recession. Recent Stats NZ forecasts have borne parts of those forecasts out, showing the economy was not in recession in 2023, but went into recession (by one definition) in 2024.
“Within six months of that litany of lies, our country was suffering from the deepest and longest economic downturn and recessionary retraction for over three decades,” Peters said.
Peters repeated his view that the gloomy economy was really the fault of the previous government and its Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
“[A]lmost all of the slump – and the pain - is directly the result of the work of Hipkins and Robertson. They cannot deny that,” Peters said.
“[T]he new current government had no time for its policies to even bed-in or change either the numbers or outcomes.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we know that it’s tough out there. We know that the cost of living has taken a toll over the past few years. That Labour’s cost-of-living rises have been cemented in. And that means we have much more work to do,” Peters said.
Responding to Peters’ remarks, Hipkins said the “coalition drove the economy into a recession, and now they’re trying to distract from the damage they’ve done with even more division”.
Peters also attacked the cost of New Zealand’s commitments under the Paris climate change accords.
NZ First and Act have both criticised the agreement for the cost it imposes on the Government and the economy and both have floated pulling out.
This week, however, Act leader David Seymour said he would not support pulling out of the deal, arguing the “trade retaliation from not being in would be greater than the cost of being in it”.
Peters criticised the agreement, but did not say whether he would support backing out.
He called Paris a “self-defeating economic and climatic shambles”.
Peters uttered supportive remarks for the extractive industries, championed by his de-facto deputy, Shane Jones, but which have come under severe attack from Labour.
“Look around this theatre today, 96% of the building you will see comes from a process of extraction,” Peters said.
“That means using the mineral wealth we have, the natural flora we are blessed with in forestry and water. And in developing the same, provide hundreds of thousands of new jobs, added value at home, and massive export growth to old and new markets,” he said, adding that he wanted “Team New Zealand” to be the first beneficiary of the fruits of extraction.
The Government’s support of foreign investment in New Zealand has been particularly challenging for NZ First, which has a history of economic nationalism.
Peters addressed this in his speech, saying investment would be on terms favourable to locals.
“We have always argued for offshore investment to be on our terms, just like Singapore did, or Taiwan did, or as Ireland has done, or as Croatia today is doing,” he said.
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.