Winston Peters speaking at New Zealand First's annual gathering in Palmerston North. Photo: RNZ/Russell Palmer
Analysis - This weekend's New Zealand First AGM has been about projecting unity, stability and common sense.
Recurring attacks on political opponents and allies alike, and the party's continued focus on its war on woke, may make that a difficult sell for some.
But with the party touting a record attendance of more than 280 delegates and a significant portion of fresh faces in the membership, the messages are clearly resonating with previously untapped corners of the electorate.
The challenge for the leadership will be in ensuring any new factions it attracts play nice. The tensions were on show during the remit debates, where party members vote on policy proposals for consideration to be taken to the next election.
Widespread groans were heard throughout the audience during a vote on one - to reconsider the practicality, effectiveness and cost of the Paris climate accord - as one member stood during one of the remit debates to say climate change was backed by science.
Another member argued the proposal was too weak, and should see New Zealand entirely withdraw from the Paris Agreement, winning loud applause and majority support from those in attendance - the amendment passing.
This was not the only example of some views being jeered at, mocked or shouted down - but the leadership kept a tight lid on such outbursts and kept the debates moving.
Despite leader Winston Peters' frequent criticisms of the mainstream media, his party prides itself on this "democratic" approach and the fact they - unlike other parties - allow media into the remit debates and the majority of the party conference.
The diversity of views was also apparent in the attendance of two former MPs from National and Labour respectively seemingly looking to jump to a new waka.
Stuart Nash - previously a Labour Minister - was a guest speaker, and made clear that although he had not joined as member he did want to return to unfinished business at the Cabinet level.
And he was supporting New Zealand First.
As The Post's Thomas Manch writes, Nash was always right-leaning when in Labour - and since leaving politics has been a vocal critic of his former party, joining the Taxpayers Union and strongly supporting the "golden visa" policy.
Nash says his support for New Zealand First is nothing personal - but that came seconds after describing Chris Hipkins' sacking of him from Cabinet after another misstep - when he was already on a "final warning" - as being "stabbed in the back".
The opposition at the time had been baying for blood, and argued Nash remaining an electorate MP was not enough and he should be ejected from Parliament.
Beyond his complaints about Hipkins, Nash mostly criticised every party in Parliament other than Labour and New Zealand First.
In contrast, Harete Hipango - formerly of National - confirmed she has joined New Zealand First and was attending the convention as a voting member. She said whether she might be considered to contest the election was a matter for the leadership.
Her own exit from politics came at the 2023 election when she was unable to win the Te Tai Hauāuru seat, coming third behind Te Pāti Māori's Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Labour's Soraya Peke-Mason. Hipango was National's first candidate for a Māori seat in 21 years, and the party has not held one since 1943.
Her tenure as an MP was not without controversy, though - her attendance at two anti-vaccination rallies during the height of the pandemic and having a staffer edit her wikipedia page were particular flashpoints - with fellow National MPs saying she could be more hindrance than help.
A sign at New Zealand First's annual gathering in Palmerston North. Photo: RNZ / Russell Palmer
Peters had been adamant the New Zealand First AGM was to be about New Zealand First, and top-ranking MPs Jones and Casey Costello in closing remarks emphasised that members should remember to criticise the issues, not the people.
But the leader spent significant time in his public keynote speech on Sunday lambasting Chris Hipkins, Chlöe Swarbrick, Benjamin Doyle, Rawiri Waititi and Tākuta Ferris.
Jones seemed to stick to his own advice, and criticised his coalition partners' response to rising energy prices, saying he had put forward multiple suggestions on actions they could take beyond simply letting power markets decide the fate of mills and other industry around the country.
His solution - or one of them - appeared to be investigating additional generators for the Kinleith paper mill, powered with woodchips and other byproducts of paper production, but the potential cost to taxpayers and the details of how it would work beyond that were not entirely clear.
Peters also had a few policies to reveal. His big speech outlined plans to make Kiwisaver mandatory and increase employer and employee contributions to 8 percent, then 10 percent. The additional cost this would place on workers and businesses would be covered by tax cuts.
National this term has shown how expensive tax cuts can be. Asked to explain how this would be paid for, how much he expected it to cost, or the timeframes for rolling it out, he either could not or would not.
He also said the party would again campaign on all new migrants having to sign a values statement - not a new policy for New Zealand First.
Like the proposal to exit the Paris agreement, ACT has campaigned on it too - and as Peters was delivering his speech Brooke van Velden in a statement said work was already under way at the Department of Internal Affairs on that.
Asked to respond, Peters said "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". He famously traded verbal barbs with David Seymour on debate stages in the 2023 election campaign.
While the call to unity makes perfect sense for holding the party together, the need to distinguish New Zealand First from all the other parties and Peters' signature combative style tend to undermine it.
He is also trying to blend "common sense" and "pragmatic" economic policies with the more anti-woke, anti-globalist, anti-trans and anti-vaccine factions he courted in the last election.
Winston Peters is predicting a massive political victory next year. It's then that voters will cast their verdict on his brand of pragmatism.
New Zealand First had a record attendance of more than 280 delegates at its AGM on the weekend. Photo: RNZ / Russell Palmer
Successful policy remits from the AGM include:
- Investigate the removal of Remove all references to the Treaty of Waitangi from strategy and policy documents across all local and central government departments, universities, polytechnics and publicly funded schools, except where directly relevant.
- Develop a long-term Demographic and Migration Strategy that aligns population trends with national planning, targets skilled migration, and supports regional settlement.
- Ensure that all culture courses for professional groups and students to be optional.
- Legislate protection for access to natural health products accommodating personal choice by New Zealanders to make informed decisions regarding treatments.
- Ensure New Zealanders are put first in any decision regarding protected persons prioritising the safety of our citizens over international agreements.
- Remove and repeal provisions of co-governance from all local and central government legislation except existing treaty settlements.
- Initiate an end date for the Waitangi Tribunal with all claims to be settled.
- Review and amend the Bill of Rights Act 1990 to ensure that basic medical freedoms are safeguarded - including ensuring that sections 4 & 5 do not limit the rights and freedoms in sections 8 to 11.
- Critically review Oppose any attempts of a mandatory implementation at Digital Identification (ID) system, and ensure that any such system remains strictly voluntary, requires all personal data to be fully anonymised and de-identified in a way that prevents re-identification, and not shared with third parties or used across borders without explicit, informed consent thereby ensuring strong legal safeguards protecting individual privacy and national sovereignty.
- Explore the feasibility of clean, safe, and environmentally friendly Thorium Nuclear Fission and Nuclear Fusion.
- Affirm the rights of parents or guardians to access any information held by government agencies, or private establishments contracted to the government (specifically schools or medical centres), until the age of 18.
- Consider strengthening legal obligations for those who omit information and/or refuse cooperation with investigators in relation to harm or death of a child.
- Re-establish the Jobs for Nature programme with particular focus on measurable environmental outcomes
- Refocus on the implementation of mandatory civics education in all educational facilities for years 7 10-12 and a structured, balanced, unbiased programme of life education for school leavers to prepare them for adult life.
- Investigate the removal of glyphosate (commonly known as Round Up) from urban use and where it currently contaminates the nation's food supply.
- Consider the practicality, effectiveness and cost to New Zealand of the implementation and ongoing commitment to the Paris Accord when just four nations are responsible for over 60% of global emissions, and New Zealand is 0.17%. Remove New Zealand from the Paris Accord.
- Investigate expanding training pathways for dental nurses and Oral Health Therapists, with a focus on improving accessibility. This includes considering regional dental training centres and increasing the number of clinical educators to ensure a stronger and more sustainable oral health workforce strategy nationwide.
- Stop the introduction of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in New Zealand.
- Lower the delegated financial decision-making authority for the Staff Investment Committee of NZ on Air from the current $1 million to $175,000; forcing funding decisions to approval from the wider board of NZ on Air.
- Develop Digital and Artificial Intelligence Strategies to support innovation, strengthen traditional industries, and enable the emergence of new economic sectors. The party will invest in regional digital infrastructure, develop strategies of governance and mechanisms of safety, and ensure New Zealanders have the skills and protection needed to benefit from technological advances.
- Reform local government, including rationalisation of regional councils, to deliver economic efficiencies, improved local governance and regional growth. and quality of life.
- Establish funding for a health check for all women New Zealanders at the age of 45. Investigate appropriate funding model for sex based health checks.
- Conduct a Commission of Inquiry into the current ACC system to investigate its processes, decision-making, and inherent failures to determine that it is fair.
- Provide funding for St John and Wellington Free in line with Fire & Emergency NZ (FENZ) so that volunteers are remunerated both for training and call out support.
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