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NZ First leader Winston Peters did not disappoint his audience at the Warkworth Town Hall on August 21.
He knew exactly what they had come to hear and that was what the veteran political showman dished out in spades.
He talked about the handing over of community-owned assets to “shadowy corporations”, attacked the increasing use of te reo by government, deplored Labour’s disastrous performance on education and housing, accused the media of being on the government’s payroll and, of course, hit a home run by describing co-governance as the end of democracy.
The meeting was hosted by Unify NZ, a local group that is aligned to a number of anti-mandate/anti-vax groups such as Voices for Freedom and Convoy 2022. The audience, as demonstrated during question time, was a mix of diehard NZ First supporters and right-wing conspiracy theorists. Peters began with a history lesson to “remind some people of how long the journey has been and why we need to protect what we’ve gained”.
Sounding every bit like a 77-year-old, he talked about the old days when there was full employment, people could get a house, the education system was one of the best in the world and where everybody could lift themselves out of poverty if they worked hard. In this Utopian yesterday, there was “always hope”.
“Labour is destabilising our democracy Their basis for doing this is a manipulation and distortion of the Treaty of Waitangi with the intent of giving over-riding power to iwi. The ordinary Maori man and woman has never asked for this. Claims are being made in their name, but they will never reap the fruits of it.
They will be the greatest victims and their needs will be forgotten while elite Maori interests prevail.
Race-based separatism institutions have become the norm. There is a gravy train with all manner of advisors making a fortune out of these changes based on their version of the treaty.”
He said the proponents of co-governance based their arguments on the treaty being a partnership.
“How they arrived at that conclusion is a legal, constitutional and linguistic mystery.
“They have never been able to tell us the historical foundation for these claims. Nor can they tell us why former Maori leaders of the intellectual and cultural superiority of Sir Apirana Ngata, Sir Maui Pomare and Sir Peter Buck never made these claims that these legal and cultural revisionists are making today.
“Partnership in a constitutional legal sense was never part of the 1997 Court of Appeal lands case, but it is on the deliberate misconstruction of that case that claims are being made over and over and over again.
“The Treaty of Waitangi is expressly about equality; equality before the law. In the treaty, governance was conferred on the Crown, the tribal leaders ceded, consented or yielded government to the Queen.
“We cannot have democracy with co-governance.”
Peters was particularly incensed at the use of the name ‘Aotearoa’ for New Zealand.
“When did they ever ask you about changing our country’s name? Aotearoa was never the Maori name of NZ. They are changing the name with no mandate, no referendum and no vote.”
He said that for a government that was fanatical about mandates, it had no mandate for the policies it was implementing.
“The ‘most transparent government ever’ is being exposed daily for the sham that it is,” he said.
Peters claimed NZ was at a tipping point, and had been pushed to a crossroads.
“The very foundations of our democracy with all its faults, which it has been our privilege to live under, is at risk.
“As we go towards the next election, we have to join forces and make a commitment to save our democracy because this will be an election like no other in our time.”
Peters confirmed NZ First was on the election path to 2023. However, he would not be drawn on whether or not he or Shane Jones would contest an electorate seat.
