October 15, 2025 • 8 mins
A thrice former Deputy PM (1996-98) comments on the passing of a former PM - Jim Bolger. He also weighs in, with his nationalistic views, on Fonterra and the Alliance Group. He also comments on his upcoming visit to Scandinavia and his appearance in the Oxford Union debate.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Winston Peters, a former deputy Prime minister, in fact deputy
Prime minister three times, or to three different prime ministers. Winston,
can I start with perhaps a nice and I'm sure
you've got a nice tribute to your old mate Jim Bolger.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well, look, it's simmy a sad day out for Joan
and Tulan and the Miniguan Tullam and at the end
of the day it was inevitable, but it's always unexpected.
And I suppose you could say that he's a great
triumph as a person or typically politics, it's a very
(00:36):
difficult business. Was to be a Marvel's family man, and
that's something he.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Was very liberal for a king Country farmer, a bloke
who left school at fifteen years of age.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Oh no, I would not say he was liberal. He
was London Norton's pressure the moment he became Prime minister,
because it recalled the then Labor Party had a eighty
nine million dollar service in the ninety budget, but it
turned out to be three point two billion dollars in
the red and that was a very very awful time.
(01:10):
And at the same time he had a very difficult
caucus to operate in and it showed within three years
of Pusher hung Parliament. So it wasn't easy to survive
all that.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Well, he had to preside over Ruth Richardson's mother of
all budgets, and I know that you weren't a fan
of it.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, I could see that this was just a repeasion,
repetition of Roger Douglas, which the public had rejected. But
she was going to pursue it, but only be better
at it. And consequently we went right into a recession.
Remember that I can, I can with great clarity, and
so this is awfully difficult. He had a caucus. We're
(01:54):
learning enough job, so to speak. It was never going
to be easy for him, but he survived it and
then survived the nine ninety sixty to be a three
term prime minister. Not bad.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, he didn't survive that entire third term though. He
got rolled by Jenny Shipley while he was off shore,
and that in the end spelled the end for you
as a deputy prime minister for the first time.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
It's been still the end for me at all. I mean,
I was still a deputy prime minister. But my enormous
son discussed at the time was that had been known
that there was going to be a spill on in
the national play that they were going to take the
benefit of the coalition of nine ninety six and then
(02:42):
get rid of the person who shook hands with That
was very, very seminal moment for us, and the rest
is history. She took me as a national party to
the worst election results since its formation ninety thirty six.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Let's move on from Jim Bolgia and may he rest
in in peace. Should I say, I want to get
your views on a couple of big farming issues, in fact,
a couple of big farming votes that are coming up.
Fonterra on the divestment of their consumer brand business and
of course the Alliance Group deal, which will be decided
by Monday. Well and well, I think we'll know the
(03:21):
results on Tuesday. Regarding the takeover bid from Dawn Meats.
You are a diet in the wall nationalist. I take
it that you're against both of these deals.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yes, then for very good reasons. This is the same
example of what happened under Silver Ferns Farms, where the
directors manufactured the debt up, hugely, manufactured the earnings down massively,
gave the farmers one quarter of information they gave the
(03:54):
Chinese and the rest of history. And also they ended
up getting the benefit of seven million dollars by way
of what's set aside for the directors who bought that
about This is an absurd disgrace about to take place again,
and the farming community needs to understand that we're never
ever going to make it as a country if the
(04:16):
added value of brilliant production in this country, which is
world leading, goes to some other economy, some of the
workforce and some other government.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Mind you, if you're a Fonterra farmer shareholder, it's difficult
to look a four point two billion off the top
of my head. I've been out of the country for
a while. Winstone gift horse in the mouth.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Really, Yes, children, you've got grand children, You've got others
who would want to get onto the farming industry in
the same way as you did. As the person's going
to make this sale, how long is this going to last?
Three years? Four years? And then what well?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I think in Fonterra's case, I think in Fonterra's case,
Fonterra will continue on. Can I go to the alliance?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
No, no, no, no, no, no answer This question is
horrible and people who are running Fronterra right now, are
they going to be there when this is all over,
after they've taken their bonus from the cell. Please answer
that question. Everybody listen to this program on the Farming Show.
We need to know what the answer that is. And
here we are. I've made the challenge for them. They
(05:25):
refuse to come out public in answer. They were asked
to come before the Select Committee two times on this matter.
Refuse to and here we got this disaster. Have them
all over again, but under our nose.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Well, at least Fonterra, to be fair, has some options.
I'm not sure the Alliance Group has those options. We're
going to hear shortly from Mark Win, the Alliance Group chair.
He's saying, it's take the deal or the banks might
call a halt to proceedings. What do you think about
that commentary and.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
What's the doing? But we should be doing this stepping
and saying, oh no, sorry you Ossie Banks, you're not
pulling the plug on us this way. We'll find a
way out of that and your hold tight. In the meantime,
we're not going to have our country run on economic strategy.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, but Surely it's not the government's role to run
private meat companies or farm around cooperatives.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Of course, there's not the government's roles to do that.
But the government's role is to step in when things
look like they're going wrong, and when they're going down
the drain as a consequence. Dawn is an Irish company,
they tell us, is a French company. What they over
here for? They're not over here to help us. This
is not John the Baptist coming to save us. No, no,
this is a disaster in our face. And what alarms
(06:35):
me is how many people in the rural and provincial
industry can't see what's going to happen here, will become
a price taker, will not longer be what we want?
What were we were setting in the case of agricultural
production in the eighteen eighties, a long time before you
and I are what parents were alive, setting out to
(06:56):
make this country great in agriculture, where world leaders the
Irish there very people have learned the lesson to do
Barners themselves in the one of these letter than that
with the Irish tiger any here in the case of
Dawn buying out and they've got all these politicians and
dare I say media people excusing it as the option? Oh?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yes, we have a final question for you. Are you
going to argue with a similar amount of vigor because
we all know you love an argument when it comes
to the hang on. I haven't finished the question yet.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
It's a lesson. It's a lesson and a mistake. I
don't want us to go on repeating over and over again.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Will you argue with such figure at the Oxford Union debate?
You're following in the footsteps of David LONGI.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Ah, well, of course I am going to argue with
such a figure because it's about democracy and how it's
constructed and why it's important.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You are on a trip not only to the UK
but also to Scandinavia. You're a big fan of Scandinavia's economies.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Oh, I most certainly am. I'm going to go and
look at Nortic e comas when it comes to primary
and outculture production. They get all the added value, all
the top class added value out of their primary products
like milk. Go to the Scandinavians. See what I mean?
Why don't we learned this lesson? Look? You remember civil
firms fans what a disaster that was. Here we go again,
(08:21):
lack tell us first when it comes to milk, and
dawn when it comes to meat. When will we ever learn?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Winston Peters, thanks as always for your time on the country,
Safe travels, and we'll await those farmer votes over the
next couple of weeks with much interest. There we go
Winston Peter's on the Country,
Winston Peters, a former deputy Prime minister, in fact deputy
Prime minister three times, or to three different prime ministers. Winston,
can I start with perhaps a nice and I'm sure
you've got a nice tribute to your old mate Jim Bolger.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well, look, it's simmy a sad day out for Joan
and Tulan and the Miniguan Tullam and at the end
of the day it was inevitable, but it's always unexpected.
And I suppose you could say that he's a great
triumph as a person or typically politics, it's a very
(00:36):
difficult business. Was to be a Marvel's family man, and
that's something he.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Was very liberal for a king Country farmer, a bloke
who left school at fifteen years of age.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Oh no, I would not say he was liberal. He
was London Norton's pressure the moment he became Prime minister,
because it recalled the then Labor Party had a eighty
nine million dollar service in the ninety budget, but it
turned out to be three point two billion dollars in
the red and that was a very very awful time.
(01:10):
And at the same time he had a very difficult
caucus to operate in and it showed within three years
of Pusher hung Parliament. So it wasn't easy to survive
all that.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Well, he had to preside over Ruth Richardson's mother of
all budgets, and I know that you weren't a fan
of it.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, I could see that this was just a repeasion,
repetition of Roger Douglas, which the public had rejected. But
she was going to pursue it, but only be better
at it. And consequently we went right into a recession.
Remember that I can, I can with great clarity, and
so this is awfully difficult. He had a caucus. We're
(01:54):
learning enough job, so to speak. It was never going
to be easy for him, but he survived it and
then survived the nine ninety sixty to be a three
term prime minister. Not bad.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, he didn't survive that entire third term though. He
got rolled by Jenny Shipley while he was off shore,
and that in the end spelled the end for you
as a deputy prime minister for the first time.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
It's been still the end for me at all. I mean,
I was still a deputy prime minister. But my enormous
son discussed at the time was that had been known
that there was going to be a spill on in
the national play that they were going to take the
benefit of the coalition of nine ninety six and then
(02:42):
get rid of the person who shook hands with That
was very, very seminal moment for us, and the rest
is history. She took me as a national party to
the worst election results since its formation ninety thirty six.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Let's move on from Jim Bolgia and may he rest
in in peace. Should I say, I want to get
your views on a couple of big farming issues, in fact,
a couple of big farming votes that are coming up.
Fonterra on the divestment of their consumer brand business and
of course the Alliance Group deal, which will be decided
by Monday. Well and well, I think we'll know the
(03:21):
results on Tuesday. Regarding the takeover bid from Dawn Meats.
You are a diet in the wall nationalist. I take
it that you're against both of these deals.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yes, then for very good reasons. This is the same
example of what happened under Silver Ferns Farms, where the
directors manufactured the debt up, hugely, manufactured the earnings down massively,
gave the farmers one quarter of information they gave the
(03:54):
Chinese and the rest of history. And also they ended
up getting the benefit of seven million dollars by way
of what's set aside for the directors who bought that
about This is an absurd disgrace about to take place again,
and the farming community needs to understand that we're never
ever going to make it as a country if the
(04:16):
added value of brilliant production in this country, which is
world leading, goes to some other economy, some of the
workforce and some other government.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Mind you, if you're a Fonterra farmer shareholder, it's difficult
to look a four point two billion off the top
of my head. I've been out of the country for
a while. Winstone gift horse in the mouth.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Really, Yes, children, you've got grand children, You've got others
who would want to get onto the farming industry in
the same way as you did. As the person's going
to make this sale, how long is this going to last?
Three years? Four years? And then what well?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I think in Fonterra's case, I think in Fonterra's case,
Fonterra will continue on. Can I go to the alliance?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
No, no, no, no, no, no answer This question is
horrible and people who are running Fronterra right now, are
they going to be there when this is all over,
after they've taken their bonus from the cell. Please answer
that question. Everybody listen to this program on the Farming Show.
We need to know what the answer that is. And
here we are. I've made the challenge for them. They
(05:25):
refuse to come out public in answer. They were asked
to come before the Select Committee two times on this matter.
Refuse to and here we got this disaster. Have them
all over again, but under our nose.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Well, at least Fonterra, to be fair, has some options.
I'm not sure the Alliance Group has those options. We're
going to hear shortly from Mark Win, the Alliance Group chair.
He's saying, it's take the deal or the banks might
call a halt to proceedings. What do you think about
that commentary and.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
What's the doing? But we should be doing this stepping
and saying, oh no, sorry you Ossie Banks, you're not
pulling the plug on us this way. We'll find a
way out of that and your hold tight. In the meantime,
we're not going to have our country run on economic strategy.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, but Surely it's not the government's role to run
private meat companies or farm around cooperatives.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Of course, there's not the government's roles to do that.
But the government's role is to step in when things
look like they're going wrong, and when they're going down
the drain as a consequence. Dawn is an Irish company,
they tell us, is a French company. What they over
here for? They're not over here to help us. This
is not John the Baptist coming to save us. No, no,
this is a disaster in our face. And what alarms
(06:35):
me is how many people in the rural and provincial
industry can't see what's going to happen here, will become
a price taker, will not longer be what we want?
What were we were setting in the case of agricultural
production in the eighteen eighties, a long time before you
and I are what parents were alive, setting out to
(06:56):
make this country great in agriculture, where world leaders the
Irish there very people have learned the lesson to do
Barners themselves in the one of these letter than that
with the Irish tiger any here in the case of
Dawn buying out and they've got all these politicians and
dare I say media people excusing it as the option? Oh?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yes, we have a final question for you. Are you
going to argue with a similar amount of vigor because
we all know you love an argument when it comes
to the hang on. I haven't finished the question yet.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
It's a lesson. It's a lesson and a mistake. I
don't want us to go on repeating over and over again.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Will you argue with such figure at the Oxford Union debate?
You're following in the footsteps of David LONGI.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Ah, well, of course I am going to argue with
such a figure because it's about democracy and how it's
constructed and why it's important.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You are on a trip not only to the UK
but also to Scandinavia. You're a big fan of Scandinavia's economies.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Oh, I most certainly am. I'm going to go and
look at Nortic e comas when it comes to primary
and outculture production. They get all the added value, all
the top class added value out of their primary products
like milk. Go to the Scandinavians. See what I mean?
Why don't we learned this lesson? Look? You remember civil
firms fans what a disaster that was. Here we go again,
(08:21):
lack tell us first when it comes to milk, and
dawn when it comes to meat. When will we ever learn?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Winston Peters, thanks as always for your time on the country,
Safe travels, and we'll await those farmer votes over the
next couple of weeks with much interest. There we go
Winston Peter's on the Country,
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com