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Benn Bathgate / Stuff
Winston Peters, with a group of media and party supporters, pressed the meat during a visit to Rotorua Central Mall on Wednesday.
Winston Peters ended a tour of Rotorua’s Central Mall on Wednesday with a blast targeting Labor coalition partners.
“Carbon free by 2030, how the heck is work going to do that?”
The deputy prime minister spoke in the wake of the government opening its books before the election, and the accounts made for grim reading.
Peters had just spent the previous 15 minutes walking through the mall, and despite Covid-19 restrictions, he was pressing meat and posing for selfies with voters.
As he passed, members of the party faithful were handing out leaflets.
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“Don’t forget to buy insurance,” was the most common message Peters had for voters.
Some of the lines were even more agile.
“Three words. New Zealand first,” he told a visitor to the mall.
Another voter, eager to ignore Peters, was warned about rival political parties vying for his votes.
“Everything else will give you a thousand promises,” he warned.
Another voter was told to do her homework.
“Get online and find out who stands up for real values.”
For another, this unusual regret.
“You don’t see me enough on TV.”
It was outside the mall, and just before his trip to visit the new St John Ambulance Center, that Peters addressed the assembled media.
This was not the time for New Zealand to vote for inexperienced leaders, he said, and it also cast doubt on unemployment figures, a number he said could exceed 10 percent.
“The circumstances are worse than the people at the Treasury thought,” he said.
The promises of rival parties were also criticized.
“The promises made in the election campaign at no cost … some of the promises that are being made are billions as if money grows on trees.”
He also spent time discussing the Provincial Growth Fund, “the salvation of the provinces.”
“You have other parties imitating it and calling it their own, but they didn’t think about it … we did it in the space of 11 days,” he said.
“We are doing dramatic things across the country and it will create tens of thousands of jobs, we no longer just sell powdered milk.”
