Winston Peters turned 80 this year, yet he continues to set a standard of energy and competence that makes the rest of Wellington look comatosed.
In the 2023 election campaign certain commentators, many of whom had barely begun their careers when Winston was already treasurer, wrote him off as a relic – too old, too prickly, which really meant – too unwilling to mouth the usual sanctimonious platitudes. Two years on, those dismissals look pathetic. The man they declared finished has, instead, delivered one of the most consequential terms any New Zealand foreign minister has ever served.
Since November 2023, his travel schedule has been relentless: Washington (multiple visits), Brussels, London, India, the Pacific Islands Forum, ASEAN summits, the Middle East, and much more. The man barely sleeps. He even still flies economy when he can and lands ready to negotiate. The result has been tangible. When Trump 2.0 began rolling out the tariffs as a point of leverage with other trading nations, Peters’ early meetings with Marco Rubio and his team ensured New Zealand was seen as a fair-trading partner, rather than a target. We escaped the 60 per cent rates that were always on the table. And now, for reasons tied to America’s own domestic battles with inflation, the residual tariffs on our beef (and Australia’s) have been removed entirely. Farmers and exporters are quietly toasting a result that began with unruffled, conscientious diplomacy.
At the United Nations General Assembly this year, Winston announced, calmly and without drama, that New Zealand would not recognise Palestinian statehood because the proper criteria of a state, you know, defined borders, functioning institutions, an economy. He stated in his speech regarding Gaza’s leaders:
“New Zealanders were appalled by the barbarity of Hamas’ attack on Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023, the worst massacre in Israel’s history. Hamas have no place in any future Palestinian State. They know only hate.”
The usual shrieks of the virtue-signalling demanded recognition because of feelings; Winston refused, and the sky did not fall, in fact many New Zealanders sat back in sudden relief and, dare I say, pride.
On China, Winston has been clear-eyed, warning repeatedly against the strategic peril of over-dependence on a single authoritarian customer. He cites Australia’s recent experience (wine, barley, lobster, coal) as a case study in how swiftly trade can become weaponised when a smaller nation dares to have an independent voice against a hegemonic power.
And then there was his promise to halt the sinister Therapeutic Products Act, that sprawling, arrogant, Brussels-style regulatory abomination the Ardern government tried to foist upon an unsuspecting, grossly distracted country, was killed stone dead in select-committee, only because Winston simply declared it unacceptable and kept his promise to those of us who utterly deplored it. This was a legislative nightmare that would have strangled natural-health practitioners, small manufacturers, and consumer choice for a generation. Winston made it vanish without a trace. That alone is worth a decade of any ordinary minister’s career.
As the 2026 NZ election steadily approaches, the alternatives remain frighteningly underwhelming: tut-tutty technocrats, messy moralising progressive nutters, an opposition whose wet-behind-the-ears leader should’ve retired years ago. All the wokerati. Against that circus of clownery, the notion of Winston Peters as prime minister no longer sounds odd. It sounds like the natural reward for experience, courage, and the rarest commodity in modern politics: judgement.
Winston won’t be here forever. But while he is, he remains at this time the most formidable political figure in our country, bar none.
Well done, Mr Peters. And thank you.
This article was originally published on the author’s blog.
