Peters completes latest reincarnation
December 2nd, 2011
In his latest reincarnation (perhaps his last?), the great survivor in NZ politics Winston Peters is set to apply the blow-torch to Key’s coalition. His rage (mostly artificial) all the more incandescent because Key spurned him as a potential coalition partner.
Bets are already being taken on how quickly he will transgress a Speaker’s ruling and be thrown out of a Parliamentary sitting.
But does Peters’ resurgence mean NZ First has a long-term future in Parliament? It got back into the House, partly because many Labour electors gave their party votes to NZ First in the hope it could get Phil Goff into the PM’s office.
Having failed, those Labour supporters may now have the galling experience of seeing Peters thrusting Labour’s new top man into the shade as he takes over as de facto Opposition Leader.
National’s first instinct may be to ridicule NZ First, and certainly the motley crew which comes in on Peters’ coat-tails makes his class of 1996 (remember the so-called “tight-five”?) look the dream team by comparison. Past history suggests NZ First could implode at any minute.
However, National’s tactics, with an eye on the possibility it might have to turn to NZ First after the 2014 election, could be to keep its powder dry. Peters will be close to 70 when the next election is due, and at some point the charisma which has served him so well (at least with the silver-tails) will start to fade.
Populism flourishes under MMP, but can Peters make the transition from the populist causes, from which he extracted so much mileage, to those which like the Occupy Wall St movement are now fashionable?
Trans Tasman doesn’t doubt he could do it, and reckons it would be a big mistake to suggest NZ First could be taking its final curtain call, given its habit of springing back to toxic life long after pundits have pronounced the last rites.
Copyright © Trans Tasman Media Ltd
Duncan Cotterill