February 17, 2025 • 7 mins
The Deputy PM and NZ First leader deviates from scripted questions and laments the loss of politicians being able to think and speak on their feet and off the cuff. He also sticks with his long-held view that NZ should pull out of the Paris Climate Accord. Plus, he has no time for Chippy's attempts to woo him for 2026.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I always enjoy interviewing this man, the Deputy Prime Minister
New Zealand first lead to Winston Peters. Winston, do you
know why I like interviewing you?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I have no idea. Maybe you're gloving for punishment.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Now I'll tell you why, because unlike most politicians these days,
I don't have to send questions in advance a day
in advance. You can answer off the cuff. It's almost
a it's almost a lost skill in our politicians.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well that's sad though, you know that we've got so
much in modern day politics which used to be well
frowned on or not allowed. And for my days when
you know you had to get up and give a
speech and not read you from your notes or read
from your phone. These days and we'd from your laptop.
(00:47):
This is disgusting stuff we see these days, but it's
allowed to happen and it's not advancing with political discourse
or the purpose of parliamentary debates.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
So what is the etiquette around standing up in the
house And I was in there wishing you and Shane
an action last week? What is the etiquette regarding standing
up and making a speech?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, the edict is said, you get the call that
this you asked to speaker and thinking it is the
cause we start. But I mean, what is happening now
is that people are getting up and reading from their
phone that so they're not part of you need debate
because what was said before them, they're not referred to it,
make no reference to it, and so they're actually just
making a statement which could have been uttered by their
(01:29):
own office or did their party and clearing sometimes it is.
So that's not taking us anywhere, and it's not being
referred to or commented on by the mainstream media. If
they were to be more careful about the media that is,
they wouldn't have the situation. But they're not saying anything
about it at all.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
How your good self aside, who's the best orator in
the house.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Ah, there's some very good ones, very talented ones. Trying
to make myself enemies better. I shange you have a
bone speech the other day about the question of the
behavior in the house in mission times, and that's worth watching.
There's some very good speakers. But you know in former times,
(02:11):
people like tour boys for tremendous better. They got all
the way from way down south. You had Muldoon who
was very very good. Long he was brilliant. Others not
too bad at all. But I'm playing those days, oh
fairly gone.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I'll tell you. I'll tell you who wasn't too bad
in the house, because I find him sometimes a bit
like a deflated balloon in an interview, and that's Chris Sipkins.
But in the house he's regarded as a reasonable speaker
and reasonably quick on his feet. Has he been quick
on his feet to woo you?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I don't know why you're saying that, because we're campaigning
for the next election as we did for the last one,
and if you look at the layer parties record, what
it was their record, Well, he said that we did
a whole lot of things that we hadn't done the
work on. We hadn't done the work to make sure
that they were funded probably or would happen. He made
that statement, first of all, just recently. And then we
(03:14):
got the job from the center of doing What did
he do? He had a bonfire and got rid of
a whole lot of her policies right after the elections,
so to speak. Now, when you look at the things
that way, you could ask yourself, happens what were actually doing?
And thinking when this is all going wrong. He was
the Minister of police. Remember he was the Minister of Education,
(03:35):
he was the Minister of health, and look how many
disasters were going on? What are all under our nose?
And when this COVID inquiry is over, you're going to
find out a whole lot of things that are really
bad that happened and where people were treated so bad
it badly gastled out of a job. Man Dad out
of a job and they've never quite recovered to him.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Now, I know you'll bristle up the suggestion, but some
of the MAIND Street and media I don't know if
I'm a that or not ONCET are saying are saying that,
and that's probably fair and land Hipkins there's no fall
I wouldn't think so. The only realistic way for him
to form a government and twenty twenty six is to
woo you because you can't have a stable government with
the party Maury and even the Greens.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Well, how long have taken to work that out in
mainstream media? So they wrote that last last few days,
didn't they How long it take the mainstream media to
work it out? This is what's so sad about you
here then, because you've got so many people in the
Party Maray and the Green Party who are not actually
house I said anything like their former leadership used to be.
(04:40):
If I look at the original founders of the Green
Party and compare what's going on now, some of these
people are partly outright Marxists, they say, so they outright
think that everybody else is just so wrong that what
works with the way they do it. They don't care
what anybody else says. And then you've got the Party
man which has got a disgusting record of late, the
(05:02):
way they come to Parliament bare feet, t shirts on,
wearing cowboy hats, and everybody else is basically inferior. They
talk about blood content, they talk about people who've got
Mario and my sham Jones and me as being people
who haven't got the blood quantum that's required, or a
waste of Marin blood, all that sort of racist, evil
sort of stuff. And they're getting away with that, well
(05:24):
they think they are. But I think at the end
of the day that Laypa now has got a big
problem because they look over there and they know how
on earth can we possibly going to govern with them?
So my answer to them is well, why have you
not condentned how they behaved? Why have you stood there
in silence and allowed these people that behaved that way?
And then they's going to handicap your party enormously going forward.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yep, well God defeated New Zealand if they got the
treasury benches. Okay, look, I'm hoping to chat to Bruce
Cottrell shortly herald business columnist and podcaster, and he's saying,
and he's a smart guy, he's saying, we should pull
out of the Paris climate.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Agreen Lou I was on another program quite some time
ago when I was asked this very question, and I said, look,
the reality is that if we've got China, India, Russia
and now the US, there is not been part of
(06:19):
it anymore in practical sense, apart anymore than what on
earth can we actually do that We've got a seriously
reconsider the position we've taken on Paris. The Paris Accord
when I was signed by that National Party w Promeister
Paul Bennett. You re course, she was sent across there
(06:40):
and they signed up. No one knew what it was
at about in Paris in twenty fifteen. But I've said
we've got to give a reflection. We've got a reconsider
what's going on here. How much is going to cost
us in a system of international responsibility that far too
many countries are not part of. And how can we
keep on arguing that it's good for the New Zealand people. Well,
(07:00):
I made that statement. It's funny, you know, some people
just blindness and that when so many reflects on that,
they think you're somehow not playing ball, not doing the
right thing. But as Crodall might be saying, I haven't
read his article, by the way, but if he's saying, look,
we've got to reflect on what and mose we're trying
to do now. If they are these huge economies, massively
(07:21):
over sixty five of the world's carbon emissions, so to speak,
if they're out, what can we do. That's what we said,
That's what I said back then, and I still say
that's what we're going to do.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Winston Peter's Deputy Prime Minister. I have enjoyed our unscripted chat.
Thank you and thank you for not asking for questions.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Very much
I always enjoy interviewing this man, the Deputy Prime Minister
New Zealand first lead to Winston Peters. Winston, do you
know why I like interviewing you?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I have no idea. Maybe you're gloving for punishment.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Now I'll tell you why, because unlike most politicians these days,
I don't have to send questions in advance a day
in advance. You can answer off the cuff. It's almost
a it's almost a lost skill in our politicians.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well that's sad though, you know that we've got so
much in modern day politics which used to be well
frowned on or not allowed. And for my days when
you know you had to get up and give a
speech and not read you from your notes or read
from your phone. These days and we'd from your laptop.
(00:47):
This is disgusting stuff we see these days, but it's
allowed to happen and it's not advancing with political discourse
or the purpose of parliamentary debates.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
So what is the etiquette around standing up in the
house And I was in there wishing you and Shane
an action last week? What is the etiquette regarding standing
up and making a speech?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, the edict is said, you get the call that
this you asked to speaker and thinking it is the
cause we start. But I mean, what is happening now
is that people are getting up and reading from their
phone that so they're not part of you need debate
because what was said before them, they're not referred to it,
make no reference to it, and so they're actually just
making a statement which could have been uttered by their
(01:29):
own office or did their party and clearing sometimes it is.
So that's not taking us anywhere, and it's not being
referred to or commented on by the mainstream media. If
they were to be more careful about the media that is,
they wouldn't have the situation. But they're not saying anything
about it at all.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
How your good self aside, who's the best orator in
the house.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Ah, there's some very good ones, very talented ones. Trying
to make myself enemies better. I shange you have a
bone speech the other day about the question of the
behavior in the house in mission times, and that's worth watching.
There's some very good speakers. But you know in former times,
(02:11):
people like tour boys for tremendous better. They got all
the way from way down south. You had Muldoon who
was very very good. Long he was brilliant. Others not
too bad at all. But I'm playing those days, oh
fairly gone.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I'll tell you. I'll tell you who wasn't too bad
in the house, because I find him sometimes a bit
like a deflated balloon in an interview, and that's Chris Sipkins.
But in the house he's regarded as a reasonable speaker
and reasonably quick on his feet. Has he been quick
on his feet to woo you?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I don't know why you're saying that, because we're campaigning
for the next election as we did for the last one,
and if you look at the layer parties record, what
it was their record, Well, he said that we did
a whole lot of things that we hadn't done the
work on. We hadn't done the work to make sure
that they were funded probably or would happen. He made
that statement, first of all, just recently. And then we
(03:14):
got the job from the center of doing What did
he do? He had a bonfire and got rid of
a whole lot of her policies right after the elections,
so to speak. Now, when you look at the things
that way, you could ask yourself, happens what were actually doing?
And thinking when this is all going wrong. He was
the Minister of police. Remember he was the Minister of Education,
(03:35):
he was the Minister of health, and look how many
disasters were going on? What are all under our nose?
And when this COVID inquiry is over, you're going to
find out a whole lot of things that are really
bad that happened and where people were treated so bad
it badly gastled out of a job. Man Dad out
of a job and they've never quite recovered to him.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Now, I know you'll bristle up the suggestion, but some
of the MAIND Street and media I don't know if
I'm a that or not ONCET are saying are saying that,
and that's probably fair and land Hipkins there's no fall
I wouldn't think so. The only realistic way for him
to form a government and twenty twenty six is to
woo you because you can't have a stable government with
the party Maury and even the Greens.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Well, how long have taken to work that out in
mainstream media? So they wrote that last last few days,
didn't they How long it take the mainstream media to
work it out? This is what's so sad about you
here then, because you've got so many people in the
Party Maray and the Green Party who are not actually
house I said anything like their former leadership used to be.
(04:40):
If I look at the original founders of the Green
Party and compare what's going on now, some of these
people are partly outright Marxists, they say, so they outright
think that everybody else is just so wrong that what
works with the way they do it. They don't care
what anybody else says. And then you've got the Party
man which has got a disgusting record of late, the
(05:02):
way they come to Parliament bare feet, t shirts on,
wearing cowboy hats, and everybody else is basically inferior. They
talk about blood content, they talk about people who've got
Mario and my sham Jones and me as being people
who haven't got the blood quantum that's required, or a
waste of Marin blood, all that sort of racist, evil
sort of stuff. And they're getting away with that, well
(05:24):
they think they are. But I think at the end
of the day that Laypa now has got a big
problem because they look over there and they know how
on earth can we possibly going to govern with them?
So my answer to them is well, why have you
not condentned how they behaved? Why have you stood there
in silence and allowed these people that behaved that way?
And then they's going to handicap your party enormously going forward.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yep, well God defeated New Zealand if they got the
treasury benches. Okay, look, I'm hoping to chat to Bruce
Cottrell shortly herald business columnist and podcaster, and he's saying,
and he's a smart guy, he's saying, we should pull
out of the Paris climate.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Agreen Lou I was on another program quite some time
ago when I was asked this very question, and I said, look,
the reality is that if we've got China, India, Russia
and now the US, there is not been part of
(06:19):
it anymore in practical sense, apart anymore than what on
earth can we actually do that We've got a seriously
reconsider the position we've taken on Paris. The Paris Accord
when I was signed by that National Party w Promeister
Paul Bennett. You re course, she was sent across there
(06:40):
and they signed up. No one knew what it was
at about in Paris in twenty fifteen. But I've said
we've got to give a reflection. We've got a reconsider
what's going on here. How much is going to cost
us in a system of international responsibility that far too
many countries are not part of. And how can we
keep on arguing that it's good for the New Zealand people. Well,
(07:00):
I made that statement. It's funny, you know, some people
just blindness and that when so many reflects on that,
they think you're somehow not playing ball, not doing the
right thing. But as Crodall might be saying, I haven't
read his article, by the way, but if he's saying, look,
we've got to reflect on what and mose we're trying
to do now. If they are these huge economies, massively
(07:21):
over sixty five of the world's carbon emissions, so to speak,
if they're out, what can we do. That's what we said,
That's what I said back then, and I still say
that's what we're going to do.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Winston Peter's Deputy Prime Minister. I have enjoyed our unscripted chat.
Thank you and thank you for not asking for questions.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Very much
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