Barry Soper: ZB senior political correspondent on Winston Peters' argument for voting the Treaty Principles Bill down

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has made a case against ACT's controversial Treaty Principles Bill.

Peters claimed he wouldn't support the Bill beyond the first reading - and outlined an alternative approach.

ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper unpacks Winston's arguments.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barry Soper, Senior political correspondence. Here, Hey, Barry, good afternoon, Heather.
Winston Peters, did he mount a convincing argument for why
he needs to vote the Treaty Principal's Bill down?

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Look, I think you were talking past each other, and
Winston has in the past. This is an age old
bugbear of Winston Peters. Back in two thousand and five
he introduced a private member's bill, and that was to
remove the principles of the Treaty from every piece of legislation.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Differences to you.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
It was put there by Jeffrey Palmer, the law lord
of the Labor Party. He put it there.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
How did he go with that bill in two thousand
and five, Well, it.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Was defeated because it was defeated by the government, which
was Labor, the Greens and the Maldiro.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
He didn't remove any of the references.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Well, he did, didn't get past the first Rulli.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
I mean, come on, Barry, you've been around as long
as when he has been around. Do you really believe
that he's ever going to get around to removing the
references to the produce?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I don't think because look, the fact of the matter
is the principles have been defined by the courts.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Over it's right. So his coalition promise is he's going
to remove the references. We are we're close to a
year into this government and he hasn't removed any yet.
Is he ever going to?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Well, you've got a legislate and that takes time. The
primary principle is by the court scene as partnership, but
it's never been defined in legislation, which is what Winston
Peters would argue. Yeah, so it has been a bug bear.
It's been a bug bear of a lot of people.
But look it's there whether they like it or not,

(01:37):
and it's canal. Jeffrey Palmer made a good work of
putting it into legislation. To get it out of so
many pieces is going to be massive.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
But do you not agree with me? So if Winston
has a different approach, So Seymour's approach is to pass
the Treaty Principal's Bill. Winston says no, he's going to
remove the references. If he kills the Treaty Principal's Bill.
Pressures on to remove the references. You've got to do
one or the other.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, yeah, the other is really difficult because there are
so many pieces of legislation.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
In which case he would the principles.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Well, yeah, I agree. I mean, I totally agree with
the Treaty Principal's bill, and we haven't seen it yet,
but I don't think it's going to be as draconian
as what a lot of people think. I think, you
know it'll be. I would imagine once it's been floated
in the public arena. The polling party for the ACT Party,

(02:30):
their own polling is showing sixty percent support for this,
and I think the Treaty principles will be not as
hard as what a lot of people are making.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Listen, did you see Audrey Young's piece in the Herall
today about David Seymour's behavior. Yeah, do you agree with
her that he may need to pull his head in
a little bit if he wants to be deputy prime minister.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Well, well, you know, lock, all coalition governments have disputes.
Remember Jim Anderson was once the deputy Prime minister. Is letter.
I mean, you know, it's it's a common facet I
guess of MMP that even though you go into a coalition,
you can't be buried, and many parties are by the

(03:12):
major party in a coalition and you've got to have
your own stand and certainly David Seymour is exacting that
with the Treaty Principles Bill. I think what David Seymour
has been is quite shrewd because what he's got, even
though he sniped the Prime Minister, and I think he
could resist from doing that. But what he's got his
debate on this issue, and I think we've just been

(03:35):
doing it now. I think that's a very good thing.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
I mean, the calculation he has to make is who
is he trying to impress the most, Chris Luxen or
his voters as in Seymour's voters. Of course, his calculation
has quite clearly been just to impress the ACT Party voters.
And you can't argue with that.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
You can't argue with that. I mean he's the head of.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
ACT because all too often the minor coalition partner.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Trust swallow up and spat out.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Scerately to impress the prime minister of the bigger party
and look what happens. So they shouldn't have to brilliant stuff. Barry,
thank you, I really appreciate it. Barry So for Senior
Political Correspondence. For more from hither, Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen
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