Source: Radio New Zealand
Winston Peters. RNZ / Lillian Hanly
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is pleased to see the end of what he calls a “gruelling year”, with his only regret being that the economy couldn’t have been turned around sooner.
He also suggests it would be “unwise” to stage a leadership spill before speaking to others about the “continuance of the government.”
Peters made the comments in a sit-down interview with RNZ, reflecting on the past year and looking ahead to the 2026 election campaign.
He said his personal belief was the tax cuts the government delivered should have been delayed and New Zealanders – if told just how bad the economy was – would have understood this was not a broken promise, but a delayed one.
“As a consequence, we would have been a year on from where we are now”, he said.
It’s the type of honesty Peters said his supporters wanted to see from politicians.
“They’re even happy to hear that you might have made a mistake, as long as they know you keep on trying.”
It may be working. The New Zealand First leader is heading into election year riding relatively high in the polls.
History indicates Peters isn’t rewarded for being inside government, but is this the year he intends to defy expectations?
NZ First
Winston Peters has ruled out working with Labour under its current leader, Chris Hipkins. RNZ
The party which has consistently been removed from Parliament after being in government is currently polling near 10 percent across a range of polls. What is the appeal?
“We are the only party relating to ordinary working-class New Zealanders.
“We have not forgotten how important they are in any economy.”
With his “workers’ party” rhetoric, Peters is deliberately muscling in on Labour Party territory.
After a string of tight polls, Peters has increasingly faced questions over whether he’d entertain ever working with Labour again.
Peters has ruled that out under Labour’s current leader, Chris Hipkins, but has been more coy about other possibilities.
Instead, he’s encouraged media to turn the question around and ask other parties whether they would work with NZ First.
“Our worker is the people who work their hearts out,” Peters said.
“We don’t have classes in this country. But it’s not just somebody doing a manual job, the world has changed.
“They have a wider description now, but many of them are forgotten.”
He said the manifestos and priorities of some parties in Parliament indicate “nothing in New Zealand matters” only “globalists” and “internationalists”.
Asked if he was tapping into any global trends in regard to nationalism, Peters indicated that had always been New Zealand First’s prerogative.
He said people simply wanted politicians to focus more on their fundamental needs rather than “ethereal” and “aesthetic” ones.
Asked if labelling toilets as male and female was an aesthetic need, Peters rejected this, saying it was “common sense”.
New Zealand First has had a “revolving door” of Members Bills this term, which Peters said was about showing the party was “ready to go” because policy had been written for each of them.
He said it was not a stunt and it was all in “good faith”.
Peters said his party had done the best this year, despite the difficulty of being in government, to focus on the “real issues”.
He also said the party was getting the “machine ready” for next year.
“We believe we’re going to do extraordinary well next year.”
It’s a statement of confidence for a party that is often kicked out after being in government. Why?
“New Zealand First is a critical presence in this government.
“It is the critical presence in this government.”
The government
On working with the coalition at the two-year mark, Peters wouldn’t respond to questions about whether his experience had given him an advantage at the cabinet table alongside leaders who had never been there before.
“We don’t answer questions that are self-serving.”
David Seymour and Winston Peters. RNZ
In terms of his relationship with ACT leader David Seymour, he said his approach was to “put the past aside and try and make things work”.
He confirmed that that would continue to be his approach “until the votes are counted” at the next election.
“The New Zealand people, whatever their vote is, whether they’re leftist or rightist, they’re entitled to think ‘I belong to democracy and stability is what the outcome is’.”
He also wouldn’t comment on the Prime Minister’s performance, but when asked about [speculation surrounding the prospect of a coup against Luxon https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/579973/chris-bishop-says-he-s-not-plotting-to-roll-christopher-luxon], Peters said one reason he didn’t think there was a “spill on” was because no one had talked to him.
In fact, he was “astonished” he was only asked about it for the first time weeks after the fact.
“It’d be unwise to have a spill on unless you spoke to somebody else in terms of the continuance of the government.”
He said he’d signed an agreement with one person, and “you expect people who were behind that person at the time of the shaking of hands would respect that.”
“I’ve been here before,” he said, referencing shaking hands with former Prime Minister Jim Bolger not knowing at the time people were intending to roll him for someone who was “massively inferior in skills”.
Peters hasn’t been shy to indicate when he disagrees with his coalition partners.
Recently, he criticised National’s ability to turn the economy around.
“When you say you can fix something, you better have an idea how you going to fix it.”
He also publicly indicated he would campaign on repealing ACT’s Regulatory Standards Bill, despite helping to pass it into law.
His key issue with the legislation was that it “massively” gave authority to an unelected group, “which is unprecedented in a democracy”.
He said he’d done his best to “neuter” it before it became law.
He told RNZ he was so against the policy he’d even raised it during coalition negotiations, he “told them to their face”.
He acknowledged people may have concerns about the process of passing something into law and then repealing it.
“We tried to signal we have signed an arrangement where we have to support this law. We don’t like it, and we’ll do our best when it’s over to get rid of it.”
Foreign affairs
He won’t just be campaigning next year though, there’s still more work to be done on the international stage.
As the Foreign Affairs Minister, Peters’ has made it his mission to, as he says, “fill the void” of “utter neglect” by his predecessor in the space of international engagement.
It’s meant “enormously extensive travel,” he said.
In the numbers, that looked like 33 total trips overseas so far: 51 countries visited, with 201 days spent offshore during the current parliamentary term.
“More time in Parliament than all the Pāti Māori members all put together,” he claimed.
The travel takes place at a time which, in his words, is the “most unstable environment since the Second World War.”
“Our response to that has been to use all of our experience in ensuring that we, country by country, but particularly with the major countries, approach things with the greatest of caution, so that we are not in any way damaged by mistakes we might make.”
A cautionary approach that saw him hold his tongue before meeting with the Trump administration for the first time in Washington DC in March.
That trip was ahead of the impending ‘Liberation Day Tariffs’, which delivered tariffs of 10 percent for New Zealand.
“Remember, these countries have a right to their own people’s determination of their own nation’s destiny.
“If you respect that, then you will not make mistakes by making critical comments of an administration which is, after all, the People’s Choice.”
That approach he hoped would “get out of all of those countries the best outcome we possibly can”.
Countries included the US and China.
“That’s why in the United States”, he said, “I still hold out to do much better in trade going forward, and where we’ve just proven, with respect to China, that our relationship is still very good.”
Peters said he always believed President Trump was going to win the US election in 2016 and 2024.
“We should be prepared for that, because our job is to ensure that whatever the outcome, we get the best possible results for New Zealand.”
As to how he planned to “do much better” in trade, he wouldn’t reveal his strategy because “that would be very unwise.”
Asked whether the Prime Minister’s meeting with President Trump in South Korea in November would be beneficial to efforts on trade, Peters wouldn’t comment.
He also wouldn’t comment on the interaction itself, suggesting questions be redirected to Luxon, because it was a “very brief meeting”.
Another trip to the US this year saw Peters deliver the coalition’s decision on Palestinian statehood recognition at the United Nations in New York, concluding that it “wasn’t the right time” to do so.
He said he was “glad” the government could “stand by” that decision, outlining how Hamas was emboldened by a number of other countries who “caved in” and did recognise Palestine as a state.
“It is so clear that New Zealand made the right decision and I’m proud to be a part of a team that made that decision and stuck to it to make sure that my country was going to represent an image of common sense.”
Domestic pressure, including an attack on his home, didn’t get to him.
“Smashing in my home, smashing glass all over the dog. The dog had to go to the vet to get bandages all over his legs.
“All of that happened, yes, but you don’t give in to gutless, spineless, terrorist-supporting cowards.”
In terms of the role New Zealand played in the Pacific, Peters had long held a belief that “if vacuums are left, they will be filled”.
He said the challenge for New Zealand was to reiterate in conversations with Australia, the United States and others, that “we play our role in not allowing vacuums to develop.”
Those vacuums, he pointed out, may not be “to our advantage” in the end.
“Always bear in mind the commonalities that we have with these Pacific people, not just the DNA, not just the blue continent or the regional association, but matters of freedom and democracy and belief in reason and the right to worship the God of your choice.
“These are fundamental things in the Pacific, largely overlooked by previous administrations.”
An illustration of this conundrum is the disagreement between New Zealand and the Cook Islands that played out this year. This came about because Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown signed four partnership agreements with China.
It led to a relationship breakdown between the two countries, and a funding pause from New Zealand.
Whilst officials had had “extensive engagement” on the matter, Peters said it was still a “work in progress”.
“This issue has not been resolved, but we have plans to make sure it is resolved.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand