This Is Your Year

Yvonne van Dongen
Veteran NZ journo incredulous gender ideology escaped the lab. Won’t rest until reality makes a comeback.

There comes a time when you realise that you’re finally old enough to go to a New Zealand First rally.

A realisation which conveniently dovetails with its leader, Winston Peters, enjoying a moment. A moment 40 years in the making and a moment that’s come none too soon for many New Zealanders concerned about the direction of their country.

A wind of change is blowing throughout the world: a wind that is finally giving voice to the host populations of nation states where, over the last 20 years, enormous demographic changes have taken place, mostly without the public’s consent. If anyone is adept at sensing a change in the cultural wind, it is Winston Raymond Peters, the 81-year-old leader of New Zealand First (NZF).

So knowing that this isn’t his first rodeo and that the coming election could well be his last, I decided it was high time to see the master in action for myself. And I was definitely old enough.

To no one’s surprise, the audience of about 500 at the Trust Arena in Henderson last Sunday skewed heavily to boomers, though not exclusively. A few rows behind me sat a mother and her below-voting-age teenage son, listening attentively. The mother told me later that her son admires Winston Peters and aims to be prime minister one day. Why not? A similar aspiration worked for Sir John Key, who reckoned he’d wanted to be PM from about the age of 10. So I could say behind me sat a future PM.

Apart from the obvious seniority of much of the gathered crowd, the other notable observation was the ethnic make-up of those present. New Zealand First caters to people who remember the country the way it used to be and the audience reflected that. Composed largely of Pākehā, Māori and Pacifica, the crowd was light on representatives from the most recent migrant groups such as Indians, Chinese or Filipinos.

Unless you live in Auckland, you won’t know how remarkable that is. Many of us in the country’s biggest city feel like we might as well be living in Singapore, or an Asian airport, such is the overwhelming number of migrants visible everywhere we look. Not for nothing have the two most common surnames for NZ babies since 2018 been Singh and Kaur, both Sikh monikers.

NZF harks back to a better, more prosperous New Zealand. On both sides of the stage large screens proclaimed key tenets of the NZF faith, tenets once considered fuddy-duddy, but now also having a moment. They are:

Nationalist.
Patriotic.
Socially Conservative.
Common Sense.

Values perfectly encapsulated by the neatly coiffed, suited gentleman who strode to the lectern to a standing ovation.

To be honest, I have always found it hard to follow Peters’ speech. Something about the way he speed talks, slurs and swallows his words often leaves me wondering if I have heard him correctly.

But from what I could gather this hour-long talk was a mix of memories (when New Zealand was number one economically in the world with half the population and MPs without degrees), barbs at the opposition (Labour last visited its birthplace in Blackball in 1986: we tour the local halls) and new announcements (to buy back the BNZ and fold Kiwibank into it and to give every new baby $1000 in their own KiwiSaver account.)

The question of rodeos and their number (not his second, third or even fourth) was raised repeatedly. A metaphor that gave him the chance to snipe that the other lot didn’t even know what horse to get on, and to repeat his oft-stated plea to ‘give us the tools and let us finish the job’.

As much as anything, NZF is defined as much by what it isn’t, as what it is. Definitely not globalist.

“New Zealand First is the only Nationalist party, in a sea of globalist confusion, and we are Nationalist with a capital N.”

“We are the only party that is looking to the future, protecting our country and our people, and putting our interests first. The other parties are globalists who see our country as a number on a spreadsheet to be analysed in the global political, economic, and cultural market.”

Also not woke and not culturally Marxist.

“Those out of touch, bureaucratic, left elitists would all rather live in crap than let the world see them use a shovel.”

So good he had to repeat this several times.

Even a touch biblical. Peters called his talk By Their Deeds You Will Know Them, a quote from Matthew 7:16.

What else? Swipes at the Free Trade Agreement with India, of course, and an insistence that “super” is affordable.

‘Super’ currently sits at around five per cent of New Zealand’s GDP, which is far below the OECD average of other pension schemes. It is growth in our economy that needs addressing, not taking safe retirement of our seniors.

Also a warning about the predatory ambitions of other parties when it comes to the Cullen Fund. The Cullen Fund is a sovereign wealth fund established by the government in 2001 to invest state money and pre-fund the rising costs of universal state pensions (Super) for an ageing population. By law, the $86b fund is designed to be a long-term investment. Substantial draw-downs to help pay for pensions will begin from the 2030s on, but Peters is signalling there are some in government who would like to raid the kitty earlier.

Mostly Peters’ claims checked out, that is until he got to immigration. His assertion that “in 2017 when we became part of the government Immigration was dramatically cut back” is not borne out by the facts.

In 2016 arrivals were 144,000, the next year 142,000 and the year after that 139,000. Hardly dramatically cut back. Departures each of those years were also high, 79,000–89,000, which did reduce net migration but this can hardly be trumpeted as a raging success.

But he’s not wrong when he says that many migrants have used New Zealand as a stepping stone to Australia, often leaving their parents here for us to look after.

Peters spoke for an hour and afterwards we all agreed (including the mother and son behind me) that we were not bored once. With its potpourri of nostalgia, snarky jabs at woke and the opposition and promises to finish the job, his speech struck just the right chord of hope, humour and gritty realism.

NZF’s compulsory KiwiSaver proposal has a good chance of surviving coalition negotiations, since it’s a sound, reasonably affordable idea but I doubt anyone at NZF really believes nationalising the BNZ will make it. I’m also not convinced the public even believes it is necessary. But this is politics in election year, so Peters’ speech was as much about posturing and symbolic promises as offering a strict roadmap of action.

Afterwards PM Christopher Luxon said Peters’ speech and policies reminded him of Labour or the Greens. This observation may be more accurate than he realises. Many who tell me they plan to vote NZF have previously voted left. A friend who works at a high school reports that even ‘lefty teachers’ are leaning his way.

With Labour’s chances of success looking increasingly dim, given prospective partners such as the Greens stuck in madville and Te Pati Maori now a spent, fractured force, NZF may present the most palatable alternative in a coalition with National and ACT. They may be viewed as balancing ballast against the perceived worst excesses of the right.

I suspect Hipkins knows he’s a dead man walking, hence the lack of policies and public engagement. To lose an election when the media is effectively onside is even more of a blow. The public rightly gauges this too which is why we might see NZF taking votes from the left as well as the right.

Peters may be 81-years-old but my guess is that this will be his best year yet. Why not? He’s only a year older than the president of the United States. Definitely old enough.