Election 2020: Orewa’s fiery speech from New Zealand’s first leader, Winston Peters

Winston Peters has claimed that NZ First had threatened to withdraw from the coalition with Labor if it went ahead with a deal on Ihumātao, saying it was a “trust” issue for NZ First.

In a fierce and racially charged speech to a mostly retiree ward in Orewa, Peters said that too many Maori were trapped in the past and that had they agreed to a deal, it would have opened a flood of treaty claims.

Peters said NZ First “went to the wall over Ihumātao,” three times rejecting Labor attempts to reach an agreement.

NZ First also rejected Labor’s request to invoke the “agree to disagree” provisions in the coalition agreement, a step that would have allowed Labor to go ahead with the agreement, but without NZ First doing so. support publicly.

Peters said that when NZ First negotiated to form part of a coalition government with Labor, it agreed that it would not abide by “politically correct policies.”

“That was the fundamental basis agreed upon before the government formation talks began. That is how critical it was for us.”

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern caught NZ First by surprise by trying to reach an agreement while Peters was abroad, she said.

Ihumātao, near Auckland Airport, is owned by the Fletcher Building, but has been busy since 2016 in an attempt to stop a housing development.

After months of tense protest action, in July Ardern said that no buildings would be built in Ihumātao while the government and other parties tried to negotiate a solution. That has yet to be resolved.

Peters said Labor wanted to make a deal.

“We said no. For us it was a matter of deep principle. For us it was critical if we maintained confidence in Labor. So we said that to Labor. And we avoided any action before the election.”

But he warned what would happen if the Labor Party were re-elected without NZ First as a governing partner.

“If Labor rules after the elections, by themselves, God forbid, or with the Greens, God help us all, then they will make a deal in Ihumātao.”

Peters’ hour-long public meeting, attended by about 100 masked retirees, was a return to his “one law for all” directions in the northern coastal suburb of Auckland.

“Too many Maori … cannot change their way of thinking,” he told his audience.

“They are stuck in the past and they want you to pay for it.”

He called colonialism “a lousy excuse” and said he had never heard a former All Black Buck Shelford say “don’t get too close to me, I’m Maori.”

“One law for all has always been our mantra,” Peters said.

Peters was an admirer of Sir Robert Muldoon, and Muldoon used the Rotary Club of Orewa for an annual address there each summer.

In 2004, former National Party leader Don Brash delivered his famous “one law for all” speech at the Rotary Club of Orewa.

Brash’s speech warned against a “dangerous drift toward racial separatism” and attacked the Labor government’s proposals for the seabed and shoreline.

It propelled National up in the polls: The One News-Colmar Brunton poll taken immediately after it posted a 17-point jump for National to give it 45 percent support.

Peters was asked if his speech was inspired by Brash’s speech and if he was inciting the race to increase their support after the latest poll placed NZ First at 2 percent.

“With the utmost respect, I was the one who did these things a long, long time ago. Long before you had ever heard of Don Brash,” Peters said.

During his speech, he also pointed to Nacional, Act and “symbolic, I’m-better-than-you-woke people up.”

And he criticized “commentators,” or the media, for telling “the most egregious of lies” about his party.

“I want everyone to know that their nightmare is coming because they have been lying about a party called New Zealand First and we are here to set the record straight.”