NZ First leader Winston Peters. Photo / Dean Purcell
Winston Peters has pointed to Covid-19's effect on the campaign after New Zealand First failed to get back into Parliament - telling supporters "we'll all have to wait and see" what his next challenge will be.
NZ First was at about 2.6 per cent, after preliminary votes were counted.
Peters is 75, and the focus will now turn to whether 2020 was his last campaign. Any retirement could end NZ First as a political force, given how closely linked the populist party is to its founding leader.
In a short speech to supporters at the Duke of Marlborough at Russell, Peters said elections are "what the people wish, and we should never stop trusting the people."
NZ First had been a constructive partner in government, Peters told the crowd, but this was an election unlike any other, given the impact of Covid-19 and the lockdowns.
His party had long questioned the establishment and challenged authority, Peters said, and that force was still needed.
"As for the next challenge - we'll all have to wait and see. God bless you, and God bless New Zealand."
Peters' pinstriped suits, stump speeches, one-liners and combative approach to the debate chamber and media interviews have become hallmarks of New Zealand's modern political history ("the last of the great characters in an increasingly bland political environment", was how the NZ First website once described him.)
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NZ First is defined by its opposition to both foreign ownership and a free-market approach to the economy, and desire to slash immigration levels. The latter has been particularly controversial, with political opponents including former Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei slamming the party for "a very racist approach" and "persistent persecution of migrants".
Other policies have focussed on helping NZ First's regional and older constituency, such as the Super Gold card scheme and provincial growth funding.
Peters' early years shaped his political direction. He was the 6th of 11 children, and when about 5 years old he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle to help on their farm.
"She was running the farm by herself," he later recalled.
"It was the loneliest year of my life. I've never forgotten it. We had a pretty smooth operation, me and my aunty. But it was lonely.
"Little did I know that when I got older I'd come to love my own company. I found myself so much more reasonable to deal with than other people."
When he was about 15 his parents took him to see Sir James Henare speak, a formative experience, with Peters - whose own lively speeches became a hallmark - admiring the politician's charisma.
Peters, who was a Young Nat "until I realised half the people who joined had only done so to try to find a wife or husband", first ran for Parliament aged 30, standing for National in Northern Māori (NZF would later call for Māori electorates to be abolished).
He made it into Parliament as a National MP three years later after a court order to overturn the election night result in the seat of Hunua - the first controversy in a tumultuous career, and one of many court cases involving the trained lawyer.
NZ First was born on July 18, 1993, at Alexandra Park - a fitting venue, given Peters' links to racing - two years after he was sacked from Cabinet by then-Prime Minister Jim Bolger, and nine months after he was expelled from National's caucus after challenging the party's economic policy and leadership.
World-champion David Fagan sheared sheep to warm up the crowd, Peters later recalled, "to let them know that this had a serious provincial or regional facet to it". His speech that day took aim at the superannuation surtax, and called for an inquiry into the bail-out of BNZ.
Peters had managed to hold on to the Tauranga electorate in a byelection, and a few months later at the general election, NZ First had two MPs, after Tau Henare won Northern Maori.
In 1996 that number swelled to 17 MPs, but two years later Peters was sacked from Cabinet and walked out of the coalition with the Jenny Shipley-led National Government, following a dispute over the privatisation of Wellington Airport. Eight of his caucus stayed with the government rather than back him.
He lost Tauranga to Bob Clarkson in 2005, but entered a confidence and supply agreement with Labour, and served as Foreign Minister under Helen Clark.
NZ First didn't make it back into Parliament in 2008 after a campaign in which Peters faced questions over donations from Owen Glenn, Bob Jones and others (Peters held up a "NO" sign at a press conference, but was sanctioned by the Privileges Committee for failing to declare a donation from Glenn).
He has rated NZ First's comeback at the 2011 election the most exciting time of his career. However, the only time he's ever cried in his political career was the day the Court of Appeal ruled on his side over the Winebox inquiry into tax avoidance schemes.
"I was in a meeting in Christchurch and a helper gave me a note, which I've framed: 'we've won'," he later said.
Another high point: upsetting National to capture Northland in a 2015 by-election. Two years later NZ First won 7.2 per cent of the vote (nine seats) and the country held its breath as Peters revealed he'd chosen to form a coalition government with Jacinda Ardern's Labour, serving as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.
He was Acting Prime Minister for six weeks in 2018, after Ardern took time off to have her daughter Neve. Other NZ First MPs included Fletcher Tabuteau, Tracey Martin, Shane Jones, Ron Mark, Darroch Ball, Mark Patterson, Clayton Mitchell and Jenny Marcroft.
The Covid-19 pandemic buffeted NZ First's 2020 campaign, and took immigration levels out of the spotlight, given the country's closed borders.
Early on, Peters attempted to differentiate NZ First from Labour and criticised elements of the Covid response, saying his party would have brought the military in sooner to sort out quarantine facilities, and opened up limited travel with Australia.
He ran as much on what NZ First had stopped (a capital gains tax, for example) than what it had secured (the huge provincial growth fund, for instance), urging voters to "take out some insurance" - a message including for those disappointed NZ First chose to go into coalition with Labour, not National.
"If we'd have gone with National, what would they have done about Covid-19 and its massive threat to the health of New Zealanders and Māori in particular? They wanted us to reopen air flights to everywhere, including China," Peters said in a speech in Whangarei on Friday, in which he again took aim at the media.
"Three years ago, we had to judge whether an inexperienced Labour leader was still the best option for change.
"Experience and common sense are critical in government. We have proved that in the last three years. Remember that they said our government wouldn't last six months, that it wouldn't last a year and then when the Prime Minister had her baby, and I was in charge, that the whole sky would fall in."
Peters' campaign started after an undisclosed illness and surgical procedure and was dogged by a Serious Fraud Office investigation into the secretive NZ First Foundation, an entity set up to handle donations, including from some of the richest people in NZ, with interests in fishing, primary industries and racing.
Two people are facing charges, it was announced late last month (with name suppression, and not MPs, candidates or current party members) - timing Peters criticised as a "James Comey level error of judgment", with NZ First seeking a High Court declaration the SFO abused its powers.
Earlier in the campaign and in a "Leaders Unplugged" interview with the Herald at Wellington's Green Parrot restaurant, where Peters has dined since the 1970s, he reflected on how his love of music helped him cope with life's stresses (CDs marked "Winston" have been kept behind the counter, so he can listen to his favourite songs when he dines there).
"I'd have some crappy days in my life but if you go home and listen to music for half an hour, it's incredibly good for you," he said.
"If you can't do any more tonight, don't worry about it. Next morning, start it the minute you wake up. But don't agonise and let the wild horse or worry destroy your life."
Peters later took a $100 bet with broadcaster Mike Hosking, saying NZ First would clear the 5 per cent threshold and return to Parliament.
"We have got a surge going on at the moment," he explained. "I can feel it out in the streets and I can see it in the malls."
NZ First climbed to 3.5 per cent in an election-eve Newshub-Reid Research poll, raising supporters' hopes. But there wasn't enough momentum, after all, and whether Peters will now retire will be a post-election focus, given his critical importance to NZ First and despite the presence of possible successors including Shane Jones.
Peters bristles at such questions and has previously pointed to Konrad Adenauer, the first post-war Chancellor of West Germany, who held the post well into his 80s.
However, during his interview at the Green Parrot in July he made clear that, whenever retirement did come, he wouldn't be idle.
"Doing nothing? Well, I'd hate it. Life is exciting. Life should be interesting," he said, outlining a plan to work with young people and help them turn their life around - a role teachers played in his own life.
"I think that would be a worthy way to give something back.
"When you're young you have a blinkered view, but time and education gives you a broader spectrum and broader vision. And that's the luck of life."
1979: Winston Peters is elected National MP for Hunua. Loses the seat in 1981.
1984: Peters wins Tauranga electorate for National.
1990: Is appointed Maori Affairs Minister but sacked by Jim Bolger in 1991 for criticising leadership.
1992: Expelled from National Party caucus for challenging the party's direction.
1993: Peters resigns from Parliament forcing a byelection in Tauranga in February which he wins as an independent. Launches NZ First on July 18 at Alexandra Park raceway.
1993: Wins Tauranga in general election and Tau Henare wins Northern Maori and becomes deputy, ushering in the first two NZ First MPs.
1996: Party wins 17 seats in first MMP election, including all five Maori seats. Enters coalition with National, led by Jim Bolger, with nine NZ First ministers and Peters as Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister.
1998: After a coup against Bolger in 1997, Prime Minister Jenny Shipley sacks Peters and he ends the coalition. Eight NZ First MPs defect to stay with the National Government.
1999: NZ First gets 4.3 per cent but Peters keeps his Tauranga seat with just 63 votes and the party survives with five MPs.
2002: NZ First secures 10.4 per cent of the vote and 13 seats including Peters' older brother Jim.
2005: Peters loses Tauranga to National's Bob Clarkson but gets 5.7 per cent Party Vote and 7 MPs. Enters confidence and supply agreement with Helen Clark's Labour Government with Peters as Foreign Minister.
2008: Peters is stood down from ministerial roles during investigations into donations. Privileges Committee sanctions Peters for failing to declare donation from Owen Glenn. National leader John Key rules out a deal with Peters. NZ First gets 4.07 per cent in election and is out of Parliament for three years while National governs.
2011: NZ First gets 6.6 per cent in the election, and returns with 8 MPs. NZ First MP Brendan Horan is later expelled for a dispute over his mother's will but stays in Parliament as an Independent.
2014: Party returns to Parliament with 8.66 per cent and 11 MPs but no electorate seat. National gets third term.
2015: Peters wins Northland byelection, thereby gaining an additional list MP, taking the total to 12.
2017: Peters loses Northland but party returns to Parliament with 7.2 per cent and nine MPs, holding the balance of power. Chooses Labour-led Government with Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister, Peters as Deputy PM and Foreign Minister, and three other NZ First Cabinet Ministers.
2018: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern takes six weeks off to have a baby, leaving Peters as Acting Prime Minister.
Two alleged child abduction attempts occurred in Auckland this week.