Where's Winston: Super stuff-ups & inside the leaders debates

It's all about Winston - his Super spin, bottom lines and how he chooses coalition partners. But it's also about the scrap for the family vote and what it's really like behind the scenes at a leaders debate

By Tim Watkin

It's been Winston week, so far. That changes tonight, with the first head-to-head major party leaders debate on TVNZ between Bill English and Jacinda Ardern. But thus far the NZ First leader and his super-charged super payments have been the focus of discussion.

Winston Peters has adeptly turned the story into one about who leaked the information to journalists. That raises privacy concerns that deserve to be addressed and has seen Peters grab the opportunity to ask how his personal information made it into the public domain. At first, he was sure IRD officials were the source of the leak. Next, he was certain it was someone in or around National.

Investigations are under way and even Prime Minister Bill English has worried out loud about officials' use of private information.

As Guyon Espiner says in today's Caucus, there's plenty of irony in this. Peters has built a career on using leaks to his political gain, and National is in something of a glasshouse itself, if it wants to pour scorn on the politicisation of personal information, given its track record recounted in Dirty Politics.

But that all has drawn attention away from the central question of how Peters was overpaid superannuation for so long and whether the man who so often calls for transparency from others, should release his forms so voters can see whether or not his story stacks up.

By and large the public reaction has been sympathetic to Peters and, as Espiner says, he's on the front foot. The bottom line is that all the recent polls still have New Zealand First as 'The Decider' - the party that will decide between a National-led and Labour-led government. Which raises the question of bottom lines…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details