October 12, 2024 • 10 mins
NZ First have just finished up with their 31st Annual General Meeting in Hamilton.
The party and its members discussed everything from reliable energy, to the future of the Interislander.
This is their first AGM since they joined the coalition that formed the Government almost a year ago, and a lot of ground was covered.
NZ First leader Winston Peters joins Tim Beveridge to debrief the weekend.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks by.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yes I got a good old tune. Now look, Winston
Peters has the Deputy Prime Minister, has just finished up
with the New Zealand First thirty first a GM and Hamilton.
The party members discussed well a truckload of things, from
reliable energy to the future of the country and even
the future of them zwed that we got a bit
of that yesterday. It's the first AGM since they joined
the coalition and formed the government almost a year ago.
(00:43):
It sounds like a lot of ground was covered. I
caught a little bit of Winston Peter's speech, which is
just concluded. I don't mind telling you it was pretty
entertaining and Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First Leader
Winston Peters. Winston Peters joins me, now, good.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Afternoon, Good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Just quickly looked like you're having great time up there.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Well meeting we go between other people there, that's huge. Yeah,
no room stating room only and out the door. So yeah,
we were very very pleased.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I didn't manage to catch the whole thing, but I've
read a lot of information about it. But you seemed
to spend cool reasonable amount of time having a crack
at labor. Are you making a play for the some
of the more traditional.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Voters representing they're working people of this country, who are
after all, all sorts of people. They're the businesses, they're
in manual jobs, they're all got the same struggle on
and sort of resenting they're elitist and they've forgotten who
they're meant to be talking about.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
You had also talked a lot about some of the
international success stories, maybe the smaller countries. I think it
was Ireland, Croatia, and you know, the success that they
have experienced, especially Ireland, I think, given the terrible conflict
internally they had and now they've turned themselves around generally,
what are the lessons we can learn from countries like that?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Well, that's a harvest do you ask that question? Because look,
Ireland was when I first went there, a very very
poor country and their biggest export were highly educated young
people going to some other country, and they in a
short time became the Celtic Tiger with some sound policies
to attract investment, new industries, new jobs, and new wealth.
And they were just duplicating what Taiwan had done, and
(02:24):
what Singapore had done, and what other countries wisely had
doing now like Croatia free from the chapels of communism,
and it's taken off. And so I'm saying, why are
we standing here not learning from them and doing things
that we used to be the world leaders of when
we were number one?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
What specific lessons do you think about from those countries
that you'd love to bring into New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Well, they recognized that they were going to go nowhere
with their own resources, with their own people unless they
get some assistance. But their businesses say will start up
there because they understand what business needs. And so they
have answerd the question why Ireland, Why Singapore? Why now Croatia?
And we haven't both answered that question. We've been trapping
(03:11):
an ideological extremist view that tacticians should be neutral and
it should not pick winners. And yet we've had Rocket Lab,
which is the fourth biggest company putting rockets into the
air into the stratosphere. Now in the whole world, we
can be a much better country if we picked the
white people to back and add Baldy on the way
(03:32):
through her.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Guests, Speaker Australian senator just enterprise. You said the West
can't win wars of children are taught to be ashamed
of their countries. Is that a problem we've got here?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
It was a very very good speech on her part,
and she was talking about, you know, basically, there are
some good things in every country and some bad things.
Well picked the big things in our past and make
them alive again. And she made a very very powerful
speech about the need for people to be trained to be,
and for good reasons, proud of their country. We used
(04:04):
to be, you know, when we were much younger. You'd
hardly get off a boat, usually where people are going
by boat, and you'd be asked what do you think
of New Zealand And you hadn't been here for five minutes.
That's how proud we were. And now we're not being
proud because we've got not so much to be proud of.
So let's make our country proud again by following the
right policies.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
What do you think the biggest obstacle to New Zealand's
success is?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Broadly speaking, it's in practical ideology. It is a lack
of common sense. When I see what Lequan you did,
with a country, an island country, the size of Lake
tarp or low resources. It is really the result of genius.
But at the time he was starting that out, we
(04:47):
were helping him with the offshore aid program called a
Columbo plan. Why do we lose sight of what we
were good at and why do we end up, for example,
instead of exporting milk formula baby formula at our top price,
we were exporting milk powder. See what's wrong?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, there was a lot of energy talk. What's your
plan New Zealand fiest plan for energy security going ahead?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Well, we've got a transition period and we've got the resources,
but we need to understand as we transition to the
changed economy, we will need extraction to get there. And
you know Norway as a famous country for environmentalism and
for sound policies, they have significant extraction. So has Iceland.
So these Nordic countries leaving the world in terms of
environmental policy and sustainability have an extraction plan, which we
(05:36):
have in political parties being totally opposed, totally opposed to
frustrating in the extreme. There's no way we can deliver
what we're going forward to in the future unless we
do have extraction.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I just you mentioned made a comment that came out
of the intra islander could run for another twenty years.
Have we been distracted by headlines where they've had a
bit of bad luck? Is there really now the twenty
years in those vessels?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
What are was saying to them? And it's more explained
in today's paper. I was saying, if they leave me
Zald go for another fifteen to twenty years, because they're
not useless in that context, but quality, en upgrade of
maintenance is required to keep them going. First of all,
we were told that they were finished in twenty twenty six.
Now now we talked last three twenty nine. And my
argument is, how do you know that when you were
(06:21):
put to the test by international shipping experts, they will
tell you otherwise. And I've been told otherwise by shipping experts.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
By the way, I deliberately didn't ask this question first
because you mentioned that probably lead the news at six o'clock,
but do you love a good heckle?
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Well what happened, and of course the media then started
running like nobody's business sone hunder of people there about
Scott ignored whilst they rushed out for a couple of protesters.
Isn't that typical?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Did they have a crack at you? Afterwards? Somebody mentioned
to me that they tried to sort of accost you
or something.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
What happened after the conference, Well, one try to cost me.
I said, we had an appointment. I mean, I've got
another meeting coming up and this interview now, And so
I said, have you made a point? No, Well what
makes you special? Everybody else is curious enough to bring
up and say can I see it? And we have
been famous for saying, yes, we see all sorts of people.
And on the question of Palestine, I have met the
Palestine in the governing parties. I have met the foreign
(07:22):
minister from Egypt, from Jordan and other parts of the country,
the Golf States and what have you. They have not
met anybody. And so it's arrogance to say that we
don't care. Of course we can. We've got five with
a record of doing then there one off protests, which,
as I say, they'll regard what they did. There's a
hard day's work.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Look, so you've obviously, I mean we've seen the images
of the conference and the party faithful and your your
MP's and ministers. So they'll have just loved the conference
and they'll have taken away probably a lot of detail.
But for the average punter, the average key we who
will read a bit about out on the news on
in the paper, what do you want them to take
(08:01):
out of the New Zealand First Conference.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Well, it's a name putting in his Zealand and the
Landers First is back and stronger than ever and that
huge men to day when we couldn't find enough chairs
and people had been locked out because they've got rules
here to do with fire safety and what have you.
They'll be going away thinking well we'll be back to
Bay Party at least, and now we're to get much
(08:24):
more stronger support going forward.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
What's your next big challenge for the party.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
To wrap up a serious year around the provinces and
all the way to Christmas and then, to tell you
the truth, you get ready for a decent break because
we haven't had one for a long time.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Excellent, Well, Winstone, I really instant Peters, I really appreciate
your time this afternoon. Thank you very much, enjoyed the
risty day. By right we'll be taking we'll be taking
your feedback on that. I actually just want to ask
a really simple question for you, based on the check
now with Winston Peters. I watched quite a bit of
the interview, sorry that the interview his speech, and he's
(09:08):
pretty blim and good when he's on his feet and
he's responding to Heckler's the reason I asked him if
he liked the Hecklers. He come up with that line
as soon as they got them out of the room.
He says, that's their idea of a good day's work,
and I did laugh out loud. I thought it was
quite funny, regardless of whether you agree with the protests
or not. But I just want to ask a really
simple question because it's based on probably my own experience
with Winston. He is something to me. You could say
(09:30):
he's a bit of a political chameleon. He would probably
say he's never changed. He's the same all the time.
But when he was campaigning for the to be in
government during the election campaign, I don't like him very much,
and I didn't like a lot of his rhetoric, and
I got a bit bored with the having the crack
at the media, although you know, we all have our
own cracks at our own industry as well anyway, But
since he has been in government. I have to say
(09:54):
I like him. I'm impressed with him as our foreign minister,
as our deputy prime minister, and I'm not sure my
mind has been changed permanently, but I think Winston is
doing great job and probably out of the two coalition partners.
I mean, actors certainly had some good moments as well,
but I would say Winston, New Zealand Fest Rock and Rolling.
Of course, they've had their negative side of things as well.
(10:17):
I don't think Casey Costello has been doing a particularly
flash job. That's probably an understatement. I think she's been
absolutely dreadful.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to News
Talk z'd be weekends from three pm, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks by.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yes I got a good old tune. Now look, Winston
Peters has the Deputy Prime Minister, has just finished up
with the New Zealand First thirty first a GM and Hamilton.
The party members discussed well a truckload of things, from
reliable energy to the future of the country and even
the future of them zwed that we got a bit
of that yesterday. It's the first AGM since they joined
the coalition and formed the government almost a year ago.
(00:43):
It sounds like a lot of ground was covered. I
caught a little bit of Winston Peter's speech, which is
just concluded. I don't mind telling you it was pretty
entertaining and Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First Leader
Winston Peters. Winston Peters joins me, now, good.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Afternoon, Good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Just quickly looked like you're having great time up there.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Well meeting we go between other people there, that's huge. Yeah,
no room stating room only and out the door. So yeah,
we were very very pleased.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I didn't manage to catch the whole thing, but I've
read a lot of information about it. But you seemed
to spend cool reasonable amount of time having a crack
at labor. Are you making a play for the some
of the more traditional.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Voters representing they're working people of this country, who are
after all, all sorts of people. They're the businesses, they're
in manual jobs, they're all got the same struggle on
and sort of resenting they're elitist and they've forgotten who
they're meant to be talking about.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
You had also talked a lot about some of the
international success stories, maybe the smaller countries. I think it
was Ireland, Croatia, and you know, the success that they
have experienced, especially Ireland, I think, given the terrible conflict
internally they had and now they've turned themselves around generally,
what are the lessons we can learn from countries like that?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Well, that's a harvest do you ask that question? Because look,
Ireland was when I first went there, a very very
poor country and their biggest export were highly educated young
people going to some other country, and they in a
short time became the Celtic Tiger with some sound policies
to attract investment, new industries, new jobs, and new wealth.
And they were just duplicating what Taiwan had done, and
(02:24):
what Singapore had done, and what other countries wisely had
doing now like Croatia free from the chapels of communism,
and it's taken off. And so I'm saying, why are
we standing here not learning from them and doing things
that we used to be the world leaders of when
we were number one?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
What specific lessons do you think about from those countries
that you'd love to bring into New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Well, they recognized that they were going to go nowhere
with their own resources, with their own people unless they
get some assistance. But their businesses say will start up
there because they understand what business needs. And so they
have answerd the question why Ireland, Why Singapore? Why now Croatia?
And we haven't both answered that question. We've been trapping
(03:11):
an ideological extremist view that tacticians should be neutral and
it should not pick winners. And yet we've had Rocket Lab,
which is the fourth biggest company putting rockets into the
air into the stratosphere. Now in the whole world, we
can be a much better country if we picked the
white people to back and add Baldy on the way
(03:32):
through her.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Guests, Speaker Australian senator just enterprise. You said the West
can't win wars of children are taught to be ashamed
of their countries. Is that a problem we've got here?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
It was a very very good speech on her part,
and she was talking about, you know, basically, there are
some good things in every country and some bad things.
Well picked the big things in our past and make
them alive again. And she made a very very powerful
speech about the need for people to be trained to be,
and for good reasons, proud of their country. We used
(04:04):
to be, you know, when we were much younger. You'd
hardly get off a boat, usually where people are going
by boat, and you'd be asked what do you think
of New Zealand And you hadn't been here for five minutes.
That's how proud we were. And now we're not being
proud because we've got not so much to be proud of.
So let's make our country proud again by following the
right policies.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
What do you think the biggest obstacle to New Zealand's
success is?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Broadly speaking, it's in practical ideology. It is a lack
of common sense. When I see what Lequan you did,
with a country, an island country, the size of Lake
tarp or low resources. It is really the result of genius.
But at the time he was starting that out, we
(04:47):
were helping him with the offshore aid program called a
Columbo plan. Why do we lose sight of what we
were good at and why do we end up, for example,
instead of exporting milk formula baby formula at our top price,
we were exporting milk powder. See what's wrong?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, there was a lot of energy talk. What's your
plan New Zealand fiest plan for energy security going ahead?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Well, we've got a transition period and we've got the resources,
but we need to understand as we transition to the
changed economy, we will need extraction to get there. And
you know Norway as a famous country for environmentalism and
for sound policies, they have significant extraction. So has Iceland.
So these Nordic countries leaving the world in terms of
environmental policy and sustainability have an extraction plan, which we
(05:36):
have in political parties being totally opposed, totally opposed to
frustrating in the extreme. There's no way we can deliver
what we're going forward to in the future unless we
do have extraction.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I just you mentioned made a comment that came out
of the intra islander could run for another twenty years.
Have we been distracted by headlines where they've had a
bit of bad luck? Is there really now the twenty
years in those vessels?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
What are was saying to them? And it's more explained
in today's paper. I was saying, if they leave me
Zald go for another fifteen to twenty years, because they're
not useless in that context, but quality, en upgrade of
maintenance is required to keep them going. First of all,
we were told that they were finished in twenty twenty six.
Now now we talked last three twenty nine. And my
argument is, how do you know that when you were
(06:21):
put to the test by international shipping experts, they will
tell you otherwise. And I've been told otherwise by shipping experts.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
By the way, I deliberately didn't ask this question first
because you mentioned that probably lead the news at six o'clock,
but do you love a good heckle?
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Well what happened, and of course the media then started
running like nobody's business sone hunder of people there about
Scott ignored whilst they rushed out for a couple of protesters.
Isn't that typical?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Did they have a crack at you? Afterwards? Somebody mentioned
to me that they tried to sort of accost you
or something.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
What happened after the conference, Well, one try to cost me.
I said, we had an appointment. I mean, I've got
another meeting coming up and this interview now, And so
I said, have you made a point? No, Well what
makes you special? Everybody else is curious enough to bring
up and say can I see it? And we have
been famous for saying, yes, we see all sorts of people.
And on the question of Palestine, I have met the
Palestine in the governing parties. I have met the foreign
(07:22):
minister from Egypt, from Jordan and other parts of the country,
the Golf States and what have you. They have not
met anybody. And so it's arrogance to say that we
don't care. Of course we can. We've got five with
a record of doing then there one off protests, which,
as I say, they'll regard what they did. There's a
hard day's work.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Look, so you've obviously, I mean we've seen the images
of the conference and the party faithful and your your
MP's and ministers. So they'll have just loved the conference
and they'll have taken away probably a lot of detail.
But for the average punter, the average key we who
will read a bit about out on the news on
in the paper, what do you want them to take
(08:01):
out of the New Zealand First Conference.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Well, it's a name putting in his Zealand and the
Landers First is back and stronger than ever and that
huge men to day when we couldn't find enough chairs
and people had been locked out because they've got rules
here to do with fire safety and what have you.
They'll be going away thinking well we'll be back to
Bay Party at least, and now we're to get much
(08:24):
more stronger support going forward.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
What's your next big challenge for the party.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
To wrap up a serious year around the provinces and
all the way to Christmas and then, to tell you
the truth, you get ready for a decent break because
we haven't had one for a long time.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Excellent, Well, Winstone, I really instant Peters, I really appreciate
your time this afternoon. Thank you very much, enjoyed the
risty day. By right we'll be taking we'll be taking
your feedback on that. I actually just want to ask
a really simple question for you, based on the check
now with Winston Peters. I watched quite a bit of
the interview, sorry that the interview his speech, and he's
(09:08):
pretty blim and good when he's on his feet and
he's responding to Heckler's the reason I asked him if
he liked the Hecklers. He come up with that line
as soon as they got them out of the room.
He says, that's their idea of a good day's work,
and I did laugh out loud. I thought it was
quite funny, regardless of whether you agree with the protests
or not. But I just want to ask a really
simple question because it's based on probably my own experience
with Winston. He is something to me. You could say
(09:30):
he's a bit of a political chameleon. He would probably
say he's never changed. He's the same all the time.
But when he was campaigning for the to be in
government during the election campaign, I don't like him very much,
and I didn't like a lot of his rhetoric, and
I got a bit bored with the having the crack
at the media, although you know, we all have our
own cracks at our own industry as well anyway, But
since he has been in government. I have to say
(09:54):
I like him. I'm impressed with him as our foreign minister,
as our deputy prime minister, and I'm not sure my
mind has been changed permanently, but I think Winston is
doing great job and probably out of the two coalition partners.
I mean, actors certainly had some good moments as well,
but I would say Winston, New Zealand Fest Rock and Rolling.
Of course, they've had their negative side of things as well.
(10:17):
I don't think Casey Costello has been doing a particularly
flash job. That's probably an understatement. I think she's been
absolutely dreadful.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to News
Talk z'd be weekends from three pm, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
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