By Ally Mullord
New Zealand First held its annual conference over the weekend, announcing intentions to repeal the anti-smacking legislation and crack down on child abuse but not revealing which electorate seat party leader Winston Peters will contest in the election.
Mr Peters spoke with Firstline this morning about why the party wants to repeal the anti-smacking law, “sordid” electorate deals and why he thinks John Key’s popularity is undeserved.
New Zealand needs to “give up the business of cover-ups, of everybody going silent, of everybody bringing down the veil” in child abuse cases, he says, and it’s a problem that can be solved if New Zealanders “reach within ourselves”.
“We’ve always had a significant Maori membership, and we know that it’s over to us to solve this problem,” he says.
“We intend to use the agencies of Maoridom – the Maori Women’s Welfare League, the Maori Wardens, and the welfare state itself – to turn these shocking results around.”
Mr Peters says the anti-smacking legislation “attacks good parents and does nothing about bad parents”, and its existence shows “how far removed [Parliament] are from the country”.
“Eighty-seven percent of New Zealand opposed that legislation, and we think it’s wrong that Parliament should ignore them.”
Mr Peters says “there seems to be some sort of love-fest going on” with John Key, and the Prime Minister isn’t being questioned enough by media and political commentators.
He says Mr Key hasn’t provided a vision for the country or offered hope to young people, and political deals like those taking place in Epsom and Ohariu “give democracy a dirty name”.
“We’re not a cling-on party, we do not do deals behind the public’s back,” he says.
“We don’t want to get involved in the sordid cronyism politics that the National party and the ACT party are involved in.”
Mr Key has said he won’t work with New Zealand First, which Mr Peters says is an attempt to stop his party holding political sway.
“[Mr Key will] work with racists, he’ll work with people who are separatists, he’ll work with people who are so out of touch in terms of this country’s economic and social needs they’re off the planet... it’s a tactic to try and stop the one party that can hold the difference, and that party is New Zealand First.”
It has been speculated that Mr Peters could stand in the Epsom electorate or against the Prime Minister in Helensville, and he says the decision on where he will be campaigning “will be unveiled very, very shortly”.
“I can tell you this: from Invercargill to Kaitaia we’ll be going flat out, and when the dust settles on election night, we’ll have made chaff of those polls.”
Watch the video for the full interview
3 News