2020 election: Winston Peters collides with ‘James’, aka Jack Tame, on TVNZ’s Q + A show

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has reacted furiously when asked about the leak and fraud investigations on live TV.

In a fierce confrontation with Q + A host Jack Tame this morning, he accused TVNZ of lying to him and ambushing him on topics he hadn’t prepared for.

“I’m sorry I came here this morning, to stop my campaign, to go see a young man who thinks he will play Billy the Kid,” he told Tame.

Peters said he looked forward to attending the TVNZ show to talk about Covid-19 and live cattle exports.

But he reacted strongly when asked about other issues, including whether someone related to his party was responsible for leaking documents about the Green Party’s controversial endorsement of a private school.

“If you wanted to know the answer to that question, why didn’t you ask me last night or this morning and I could have gotten it for you?” Peters said.

The NZ First leader and the deputy prime minister repeatedly refused to answer the question.

“You are not a lawyer,” he told Tame. “Stop playing silly games, I’m telling you.”

During the heat of the discussion, Peters referred to Tame as “James” on five occasions.

“My name is Jack, Mr. Peters,” said the announcer.

The interview sparked a widespread reaction on social media, with some siding with Tame and others with Peters. One person labeled it a “train wreck.”

Peters also reacted angrily when asked about organizing a taxpayer-funded trip to Scott Base in Antarctica for two of his friends.

“Don’t use the power of the state, paid for by the taxpayer, to try to disarm a political party … with a little old-fashioned dirt,” he said.

“If I wanted information on that, I could have given the answers to Gerry Brownlee and everyone who has asked me in recent months. But no, he thought he would come and kidnap me.”

Peters was challenged by the decision to spend $ 10.5 million on a horse racing track in Christchurch through the Provincial Growth Fund. He was asked how much New Zealand First had received from the horse racing industry in donations.

“You can keep talking for as long as you want,” Peters said. “But I think it’s a shame that a taxpayer-owned operation like TVNZ is behaving like this.”

Tame maintained his line of questioning, saying that the general election was six weeks away and that integrity was a central issue for voters.

He also asked Peters if he had been interviewed by the Serious Fraud Office about his investigation into election donations.

SFO is investigating an entity called the New Zealand First Foundation, which funded Peters’s party.

Peters declined to say whether he had been interviewed by the OFS. Tame said again that the question was about integrity.

“Why did you lie about that then?” Peters said. “You and your producer flatly lied about the subject of this show.”

The interview later died down when he returned to an area Peters was most comfortable with: cattle exports to the Arabian Gulf.

When Tame concluded the interview, thanking Peters for his time, Peters could be heard saying “OMG.”