When Will NZ's Political Gadfly Depart?

The Great Deceiver

Last week radio host Mike Hoskings argued that the first soundings of the death knell had been heard within NZ First.  Its self-important, gadfly leader, Winston Peters has betrayed the useful idiots who voted for them, says Hoskings.  

I'll say this about your New Zealand First voter: they're straight up and down.

I am receiving large levels of correspondence, and I am not the only one, from people saying they are embarrassed or ashamed that they voted New Zealand First.  They feel duped, ripped off, if not hoodwinked.  And it's the foreign aid package that's tipped them over the edge.

First issue, and to be blunt, it wasn't as though a lot of us didn't warn them, but the first bit was when Winston Peters chose Labour.   A chunk of the New Zealand First vote was to allegedly keep National honest. The theory being, and in normal circumstances under regular rules there was logic, that National would be picked because Winston had picked them before and fundamentally he's a conservative.

Hence him having to swallow that massive dead fish on oil exploration, not to mention irrigation bans and the dairy crackdown. But the Foreign Affairs package - and it's $900m worth of aid and more diplomats - is not what a New Zealand First voter would have had at the top of their priority list.

The regional fund might have been. And that still has potential, potential to help the regions and get the party votes. And the key, and this is what virtually all the correspondence is saying, the key is in the name. New Zealand First.  Where's the New Zealand First in foreign aid? And all this on the back of the news that cheaper doctors' visits in this country have been delayed.

This is the stuff a classic New Zealand First voter would have expected and embraced - you miss out, so Mr and Mrs Tokelau can get some more help. And to what end? We can't subsidise a doctor, but we can hand out thousands to a person who doesn't even live here.

It doesn't make sense to me, but then I was never sucked in by the Peters snake oil act.
And is the money, this billion dollars, for aid or to suck up to the islanders and remind them what's what when the Chinese arrive - and if it is that we can give up now. Because guess what? China have (sic) more money.

If all this aid was getting us somewhere, brilliant. But it isn't.  For a party that's done nothing but go backwards in the polls since the election this is not worth a single vote.  It might well be the kiss of death.  [NZ Herald]

The personal ambitions of Winston Peters and his undying loyalty to his favorite political party, MMI--otherwise known as Me, Myself, and I--have no bounds.  He has played the electorate and his own supporters like the proverbial fiddle for years.  His electoral supporters are now deserting in droves if the latest opinion polls are credible.

David Farrar, at Kiwiblog makes a further observation:

NZ First voters are feeling betrayed but Winston may be able to woo some of them back.

However the straw that may break the camel’s back is law and order. NZ First has always campaigned on very hard line law & order policies. If they sign up to Labour’s law changes to repeal three strikes and make bail and parole easier – well that will be the death of them I’d say.

In calmer moments, when we lean back on the deck chairs and ask why it is that we detest Winston Peters so much it can be summarised in one word: hypocrisy.  He has manipulated, deceived, and used his supporters to further his own political ends relentlessly over the years.  Integrity is not a word one associates with Winston Peters.