Winston Peters in fine form at Hastings meeting
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters was in fine form at a meeting in Hastings today, taking aim at the Government and the media in a fiery speech to about 150 people.
Addressing an audience of mainly older Pākehā people, as part of his nationwide 'Listening Tour', Peters claimed New Zealanders have been "taken on an unconstitutional, revisionist, ride of political deception".
In October, Peters announced his party's return from political hibernation after it was kicked out of Parliament following the 2020 election, where it received just 2.6 per cent of the party vote.
His latest speech saw Peters launch a scathing attack on Jacinda Ardern’s government, which he was in power with in its first term.
“There have been great labour governments in the past and Labour governments that have simply been hijacked and failed. And Labour has been hijacked since the 2020 election.”
He referred to the recent case of parents of a sick baby refusing vaccinated blood and said the issue was not about being ‘pro or anti-vax’ or even denying any of the science.
“This is about freedoms, truth, and people’s right to informed consent.”
“All totalitarian dictatorships have one feature – the government is right and cannot be questioned. This is a sad example of just how dictatorial and self-righteous the government have allowed themselves to become. You will recall how so many New Zealanders were mandated out of a job and careers.”
Peters says his party has stood up for the people’s right to be informed and to make their own choices.
“We reject utterly the way so many people were mandated out of work and incomes by the ‘podium of truth’. It is our position, that those who were mandated out of work due to their freedom of choice, should be offered their jobs back and compensated.”
“We have always regarded the right to disagree as one of the most fundamental rights in a democracy. And it is a right that we know is worth defending.”
Peters also slammed the Labour Government’s co-governance strategy, their approach to Three-Waters or Six Waters as he called it, and also took aim at the country’s mainstream media.
At one point in the meeting, he targeted a woman videoing the meeting as being from TVNZ, but TVNZ’s reporter said she was not part of his crew.
In conclusion, Peters said: “The only people standing in the government’s way now are in this hall and all-around New Zealand. For this government to succeed they have to take away your power in a democracy. And via the mainstream media delude you into thinking that their plans are in your interests.”
