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Monday, August 21, 2023

Cam Slater: Hitting Home Runs Like a Boss


This article won’t be pleasing for the Never Winston brigade: those who are so blinded by their allegiance to the wet and woke National Party that they can’t see that Winston Peters is actually saying the things National Party leaders used to say, back when they stood for something.

But right now Winston Peters is hitting home runs out of the park. He is saying the things that most of us are thinking.

While Christopher Luxon sticks up for men using women’s toilets, Winston Peters is saying NO. Luxon might like to think this is unimportant but for more than 50 per cent of the population this IS an issue, whether he likes it or not.

When media luvvies like Tova Two-Mums and No-Dad get upset, you know he is on to something. We all now know which side Luxon would have stood with at the Posie Parker rally, and it is not for real women.

The next outrage will be what Winston Peters said in a speech in Pukekohe on Sunday.

Peters said: “New Zealand First will formally withdraw New Zealand from UNDRIP, and its imposed race-based obligations, and restore our country’s constitutional sovereignty and democracy.”

UNDRIP, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a legally non-binding resolution the United Nations passed in 2007. The purpose of the declaration is to emphasise the rights of indigenous people, prohibit discrimination and encourage co-operation with them by governments.

Peters, alongside the Helen Clark Labour government, voted against the resolution in 2007. New Zealand then endorsed the declaration in 2010 under John Key’s National government.

Peters said UNDRIP and He Puapua, a report commissioned by the Labour-NZ First government in 2019 and leaked by the National party in 2021, “are race-based preferences”.

“If New Zealand First had seen that final report then we would have rejected UNDRIP, as we did in 2007.

“The National/ACT/Maori Party signing up to UNDRIP, and the Labour/Green parties joining them in imposing United Nations obligations on New Zealand’s sovereignty, has got to be challenged,” he said.
1News

As well as advocating for English to be made an official language of New Zealand:

NZ First leader Winston Peters has promised to make English an official language as part of his platform to “deal to this racism”.

Speaking today at a public meeting in Auckland’s Pukekohe, Peters said it amazes him that English is not an official language of New Zealand while te reo Maori and NZ sign language are.

“Being that we are an English-speaking country, it is bizarre that we have to do this, but this is how far this extremism has taken our country,” Peters said.

English already enjoys de-facto official status, being spoken by 95.4 per cent of the population, according to the 2018 national census. It has never been an official language.

The distinction has been explained in response to previous attempts to make English an official language by Otago law professor Andrew Geddis as an opportunity “to affirmatively grant the right to use them [te reo and NZSL] in particular, specified situations where they otherwise could not be used. This is not the case with English.”

It is assumed, both unofficially and officially, that English is the language already spoken by most New Zealanders, with a minimum proficiency in it required for many visas.

Peters, however, said it’s “just commonsense” to enshrine the language, protecting it from attacks he sees being carried out by “the new fascists” in government.

He also rallied against “ideological mumbo jumbo pushing to change the name of our country to Aotearoa”.
1News

This is the sort of stuff that Christopher Luxon is too scared to engage with. Luxon surely must realise that he needs Winston Peters to say and do these sorts of things. He needs Winston Peters as a bulwark against the increasingly desperate David Seymour, who seems to have a only one worry this election campaign: that Winston Peters is stealing his thunder.

Right now Winston Peters is saying and doing all the right things in this election campaign. National Party stalwarts better watch out because Winston Peters is coming for the middle ground that you used to own in NZ politics.

He is stealing votes from Labour, National and ACT now. Watch as his poll numbers increase while National’s stagnate.


Oh, and you better get used to seeing more of Winston Peters. He’s back and may well be bigger than ever.

Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. This article was first published HERE

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are right Cam, it's not pleasing.

Anonymous said...

If only you could trust Winston do what he says....

Phil said...

As we know what Winston says on the campaign trail and what he does once elected are always very different.

Anonymous said...

A review of CEO public servants wages announced in the weekend by Seymour is what voters like to hear. Peters also is “ on the money”. Labour is practically down & out. Luxon needs to throw the knockout punch. Doesn’t he have any mongrel in him?

Jim said...

These are two questions for Cam: 1. Do you actually TRUST Winston Peters? 2. If so, why?

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm A you perfect NO one is Perfect....
How about this from Luxton :
While Christopher Luxon sticks up for men using women’s toilets, Winston Peters is saying NO. Luxon might like to think this is unimportant but for more than 50 per cent of the population this IS an issue, whether he likes it or not

Would you if you were a Women vote for Luxton What a dumb thing to say...But that is his take on it Pity the Country ...HELP HELP

Ray S said...

National must talk to Winston, he has quite a following.
If necessary, ACT WILL work with Winston. No mistake.

Anonymous said...

People love to disparage Winston but they can never quite say what he has done to harm anyone. All politicians are in it for themselves up to a point. But unlike the damn Dame, Shonkey and 7 houses Luxon he has never promoted the shameless asset hiking for NZ property speculators at the cost of ord-in-ary working class people being shut out of home ownership.
Winston says "One NZ for New Zealanders" and has consistently said that over the last 30 years. I hope he can wangle being PM just quietly. The hubris from the disaffected would be hilarious.
MC

Anonymous said...

Cam- Oh gosh, some one who is going to disagree with you.

Across the Political History of Winston Peters, during the campaign stages, both back then and even now, who did he speak to in the majority. I think if you look at the majority of his "town hall" meetings - the attendees would have been an older age group.

How many young potential voters turned up, then and or even now to "listen to WP espouse on matters of Policy"?

You, Cam, have been in a position to cover WP's career, the ups & downs, the hysteria, the treatment meted out to MSM - which as "one pundit" put it - those encounters, with WP speaking derisively to the MSM "was all an act", more to show the public- "how he, WP, dealt with them".

You state, that current WP vote catching statement - "is to reverse UNDRIP"- well during the 3 years of being alongside Jacinda, he had the opportunity, then, why did he not do so? Oh my research shows that it was Peter Sharples who led the "charge to New York" to put ink on paper - I do believe WP sat in Parliament then, he had the opportunity then to "rail against what happened"- did he do so?

2016 - if memory serves, WP could not "wait to sit alongside Labour", was he not Deputy PM ?, he was "supposed to have been a hand brake on Labour" was he?

I recall he "did not waste time cuddling up to Helen Clark". Oh I do recall a story, from then, that WP & Jim Anderton "had visual problems with one another"??

Shane Jones, proudly travelled NZ with "cash to burn" - The Provincial Growth Fund, - the questions now are, who got the dosh (I have seen written data on who, but unverified) and what accountability was required??
Was this a NZ First "showing we care NZ"?

Since 2020, there has been a growing ground swell of New Zealander's who
have openly voiced - NO to WP, never again.

I have no faith in WP, and that goes back to his days with National under Jim Bolger, and when you hear David Seymour 'openly state, why he will not work with him (WP)'[when David made this statement, the attending Public applauded] - then you know that Mr P certainly has no "status" as a
continuing Politician in NZ.

Andrea Vance's byline - Sunday Politics, Sunday Star Times -20th August is worth a read, I wonder what she would say about WP - me thinks "not comments that she could print".

A vote for WP and/or a Party vote for NZ First will be wasted votes.

Robert Arthur said...

There is a landslide effect with voters. To very many it is all a mighty challenge and unless maori they have little clear basis to support a particular party. But most, both to friends and themselves, do not wish to be perceived as losers. so they desert in droves parties perceived as becoming that.

Anonymous said...

A meeting I attended in Hastings last December had around 200 people there and quite a few younger ones, from 20's through the range. I asked one young man if he was a supporter and he said no but he was interested to hear what Winston had to say.
Everyone disses him (media have stoked an ongoing campaign against him forever) but no-one can say what harm he has done.
He is populist but has always stood for the same things including standing up for the little people.
MC

Simon Cohen said...

I will give you one example of the harm he has done. He made Jacinda Adern PM in 2017 so he could become deputy PM and ushered in the worst 6 years of government this country has ever experienced.
But Cam is so far down the rabbit hole with Winston that he will never acknowledge that.
Hopefully on the latest polling even if he does get back into Parliament National and ACT will have a large enough majority that they won't need to rely on him and he can sit in the opposition benches with all the other losers in Te Pati Maori and ther Greens.

AlanG said...

I wouldn't vote for him but what he says resonates with me deeply. I just wish wish wish that National, luxon and willis would take these strong stances as well. I am sure they would win massive support, however, in the absence of statements to the contrary I just have to assume that they support men in ladies toilets rights over womans' rights, tribalism over democracy, and barking mad, scientifically indefensible climate bollocks over our farmers and cost of living. With them in the driving seat next term, is anything really going to change?