I once took it upon myself as host of The AM Show to ban Winston Peters from the programme for six weeks when he was acting prime minister while Jacinda Ardern was on maternity leave. He’d been late the previous two weeks and live shows need to work like clockwork.
I told my producer of my intentions before the show should Peters be late. He nervously grinned at me but never said a word, probably thinking I wasn’t serious. But I was – and, sure enough, Peters was late.
So, I immediately said, “I’m over it, don’t come back, bugger off, over it.” The bosses freaked, apparently, and Peters plied his nonsense on Sky News Australia instead.
Then six weeks later, we needed him back. The producers asked me how. I said I’d call him and negotiate. No worries. Peters does deals – it’s what makes him tick – and I am not sure I’ve said that publicly before.
I went home and paced around my bedroom before calling. No answer. I left a message with his press secretary. Peters made me wait six hours before returning the call.
“Duncan, it’s Winston.”
“Just the man I need to talk to ... thanks for calling back,” I said. I started giggling, hoping he would too. Thank goodness, all I heard was him laughing and abusing me at the same time. “Great I’ve got him back,” I thought, “now, what other hoops will this guy make me jump through?”
‘’How are you going to do this and why should I bother and trust you?” he asked.
“Because I stick to my word, Winston. If I say I’ll do something I’ll do it. I said I’d ban you and did.”
Giggle from Peters.
“So, how about this: I’ll offer an apology and back down during my introduction of you being back on the programme … how’s that?”
“Well, it better be good,” he said.
“I will do it and then we’ll get on with it, okay?” I offered.
“Okay,” he said, with a hint of doubt in his voice (Peters trusts few people).
So came the day. Peters was early for the interview. I did my introduction, and backdown, and Peters starts by saying, “Well, no one is beyond redemption!”
It broke the ice and Peters engaged brilliantly for the next 10 minutes.
Peters has become New Zealand’s problem and solution over these past 30 years of MMP politics. And, for some of it, I have been privileged to occupy a front-row seat.
Master versus tryhards
I share this story because Peters used the same redemption line this week as acting PM while Chris Luxon was briefly away. He’s the master playing in a sandpit of preschoolers and apprentices. Even Shane Jones, the man with the biggest vocabulary in Australasia and a brain the size of Northland, just smiles and admires.
This Parliament lacks genuine characters. Let’s hope some shine through. Taking themselves less seriously, being more in touch with real folk and adding humour is a start. For the moment, Peters brings theatrics to a theatre that’s desperately in need of characters.
But those who say he’s all show and has achieved nothing are wrong. He’s responsible for free doctors’ visits for preschoolers, the SuperGold card for pensioners, NZ superannuation entitlements staying the same or increasing, and securing billions for regions forgotten by other parties.
The man no wanted to work with.
Chris Hipkins said he’d rather have another election.
David Seymour was scathing.
Chris Luxon said he didn’t know him, but two months later, leaves him in charge of the country.
It’s Winston one, the rest of them, nil.
To alter the words of the late Sir Michael Cullen: Peters won, with just 6%, now eat that!
MMP in NZ is the art of what’s possible and the art of acceptable compromise. It’s what and who we are. The sooner we accept it, the better for all our sakes.
The wisdom of age and experience
Winston Peters turns 79 in a few months and will be 80 before he hands over the job of Deputy Prime Minister to David Seymour. But before then, there’s a country to run, and Peters did that for 24 hours this week. He couldn’t stop grinning, clearly having the time of his life. You can’t argue he hasn’t stayed relevant.
Many saw him as washed up, and they were ready to bury him and wipe him from the NZ political scene. But Peters is a cockroach, powerwalking through a nuclear storm of raindrops that fail to tag him or slow him down in any way.
While older MPs are common overseas, it’s less so here where we seem to eject far too many experienced people from jobs across a variety of sectors. Experience matters.
The young march and yell and reach for the stars – and some even rush for the exit when it gets too tough – but sometimes they forget life is not black and white, and changing one thing in an economy affects other areas. While they might feel they’re making change, they can fail to bring people with them, so the change they think is occurring builds resentment.
In countries where age is respected – instead of laughed at, as I think sadly it is in NZ – there are a few of Peters’ age left: Joe Biden will run again for the US presidency at 82; Donald Trump is 77. By comparison, Walter Nash left Cabinet aged 78 but stayed on in Parliament till he was 86. To make Peters feel like a spring lamb, Malayasia’s Mahathir Mohamad was 93 and running the country.
Peters makes it interesting, if not a little volatile, although these days he seems less renegade. He stands alone among the cardboard cut-outs, the colourless middle-aged and the shrill young ones in our Parliament. If anything, he’s become the safe and almost sure bet among the wildly idealistic, whose biggest achievement is sometimes just being there.
Peters ran rings around those who plotted to embarrass him in Parliament this week. He toyed with them as they read from pre-scripted notes. The master just gave the wannabees a lesson in experience versus the well-meaning, heavily researched, try-harder tribe in Opposition. Attack after attack, they threw at Peters. Been there, done that, seen it kiddo, see you later was the response.
In these unusual and uncertain times, some form of experience actually matters right now. He’ll provide this and I hope he gets knighted for it.
Winston is not perfect, but it could be much worse. Christopher Luxon, the prince of outcomes, has been back for days and is restored as PM. His leader, Winston Peters, will hand back the keys to the kingdom and put the set he cut in the top drawer for next time.
Lesson: never write off Winston Peters.
Ever.
