In this week's episode of VOTE2023, we talk to New Zealand First leader, former deputy prime minister and political veteran Winston Peters about trade and constitutional arrangements, foreign affairs and export dependency, his 'anti-nonsense' stance on culture wars and the cost of living in Aotearoa.
This series is made by politics students and aims to entertain and inform viewers about their potential representatives this election. Answers have been condensed for brevity. Click here to watch the full interview.
NZ First has proposed a referendum to extend the parliamentary term from three years to four years. Do you believe this would lead to more effective politics and if so, why?
We believe it would lead to far more effective ... central government decision making by politicians but also at the local government level ... you’ve hardly won the election and you’re out campaigning for the next one, and it’s expensive – not just in terms of the cost to the taxpayer and to political parties and their supporters, but it’s expensive in terms of diverted time when you should be devoted to solutions and long-range plans.
Part of NZ First’s election commitments include making English an official language. What are you hoping to achieve by this?
The Plain Language Act says all statutes should be in language that ordinary New Zealanders can understand [except] Māori can be in there, and 95 percent can’t understand it ... that changes the whole thing because it’s no longer plain language to 95 percent of the people, they can’t even understand the statute they’re reading now.
Your election policies have centred on passing legislation about not allowing transgender men and women to go into certain bathrooms. How would you enforce this policy?
How have we been enforcing males not going into female toilets now? How have we been enforcing women not going into male toilets now? This is the kind of flimsy argument when you haven’t got an argument against someone. All I’ve said is we’re going to have male, female and unisex. We’re not anti-anyone, we’re not anti-trans ... [but] when women’s organisations write to me in substance and numbers I’m going to listen to them and not a whole lot of people who don’t care about women’s safety and their right to feel secure in their environment.
You’ve spoken out on the health and physical education curriculum in high schools which covers issues such as awareness around sexuality and gender diversity, the impact of social media and the availability of sexually explicit and confronting online content. You’ve claimed there is some kind of indoctrination going on – what kind of indoctrination does NZ First intend to prevent within our school curriculum?
Precisely that. Because they’re talking about the science curriculum – it’s not going to be about science anymore. It’s no longer going to be about biology, it’s going to be about all this sexual education and gender narrative and everything else these woke people want to introduce, and not about education. Do you realise that in literacy and reading, this country is the worst in the whole English-speaking world now? Meanwhile you’ve got all these woke people ramming that down people’s throats without even telling parents they’re teaching it.
What will NZ First do to tackle the cost-of-living crisis?
We’re going to ensure that there’s a full-scale investigation into cost of living in terms of supermarkets and unfair competition and also in many cases their abuse of New Zealand grower/suppliers, because they’re not getting the profits at all.
Why should a young New Zealander vote for NZ First in 2023?
Because there’s only one party that stands up for a country called New Zealand, it’s in our name, and we’re out to create a world where young students can put it all on the line and yet have a future successfully, staying here and not going overseas forever. That’s our promise and that’s always been our objective.
