Winston Peters: Foreign Minister reveals why he didn't recall Trevor Mallard sooner

The Foreign Minister's defending recalling Trevor Mallard as Ambassador to Ireland now, and not 18 months ago. 

The previous Government appointed the former Parliament Speaker to the role in 2023.

Winston Peters yesterday replaced him, saying Mallard will return home two months early. 

He says Mallard should have resigned.

Peters further explained he didn't bring him home earlier to avoid being accused of being vindictive. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, here we go. Winston Peters says he's writing to

(00:02):
the COVID nineteen Royal Commission, volunteering to answer any questions
they have in public and he's with us. Now, Hello Winston,
Hello Winston. What could you tell them that they need
to know given that you weren't in government in the
period that they're looking at.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Look, first of all, it's the right thing to do.
Don't forget. The public was promised transparent accountability, and the
inquiry was designed so that we don't make the same
mistakes again, and you can't hide behind lawyers and giving
all sorts of excuses when in fact there should be accountability,
transparency and getting to the public's trust so that they

(00:37):
can have confidence that we've learned something from this experience.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Look, I agree with you on all of that, But
what can you tell them about that period that they
need to know because you weren't in government.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, but take the first inquiry they set up. I said,
from the moment I thought it was a sham. I
was w Prime Minister when the pandemic first started. The
original query never even asked me to submit, and that's
how shallow and pointed it were. And that's why we
demanded and disagreed with the Active National for a proper
inquiry with public submissions and the decision makers, including me

(01:08):
appearing at it.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
So would you like this inquiry to just go slightly
beyond its remit in its terms of reference and actually
look back at the time when you were in government.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well, I'm very happy to do that. In most astonishing thing,
the Deputy parytmentist at the time were not even asked.
So there's something funny here, and that's why we asked
for a proper inquiry and we're volunteering it now. And
even though at the time we were not in governments,
nevertheless we were seriously part of watching this process and

(01:43):
indeed ended up supporting those people who were protesting on
the grounds of Parliament. In some cases had lost thirty
five years of their job and the employment or their businesses.
It was massive and I saw lawyers and doctors and
norsels of people there and they weren't going down a
rabbit hole. They were demanding account of.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Do you regret any COVID decisions that you made?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Look, I did regret very soon to the piece, because
I can tell you what happened. I was there one
day and when I made a sapt in the Australian
media correcting something that they were running. It was the
allegation supported by sint Adn and Bloomfield, that the COVID
had got to New Zealand from a company called America

(02:27):
hold Out of Melbourne, Australia. And the moment I heard,
I thought this has got to be fictitious, because there
were twolve hundred workers there and two had it, so
they could have got it from the factory. Now, the
point that held that and Blomfield of Magan was that
it came here by way of product, and this was
an ugment. They maintained for three days against what I

(02:47):
was saying, until the merry old head person rang up
and said, excuse me, we haven't sent you any product
for four and a half months.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Wow, So what part of that do you regret?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
And the second part and the second part was I'm
sitting there and I'm hearing people giving absolute answers and
I thought, they can't possib me that's certain. They can't,
boss know?

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Why were they that certain? Was it was? It? Was
it a deliberate attempt to mislead the public with providing
them some sort of a cockonball story, or did they
genuinely believe it.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Well, you got two answers to your question. Either they
were being deliberately deceptive or they were just being wantonly naive.
Take a pick.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Okay, hey, you didn't really get Trevor back early, did you.
I mean, if he's he's due to finish in January
and he comes back in November, that's not really early,
is it.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, if you don't think four months earlier, I do.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
It's not four months. What are you talking about? December?
That's only two.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Months, three months early. It is not the full term
at all. And there are others that I've extended their
term for two more years.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Why didn't you call him? Why didn't you call him back?
Recall him much much earlier you've had, you've had almost
two to do.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
It, because we've been making the claim at the very
beginning that all I was being was vindictive, as being
like Muldoon and hear what's going way back when? I
bet you can't remember that time because you weren't, but
I was, and I wasn't being accused of that sort
of behavior, And I thought, no, no, he should have
offered his resignation to me from the go anyway.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Okay, Winston, thank you. I appreciate your time as always,
Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader. For more from Hither
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