By Jo Moir for Newsroom
Winston Peters speaking to protesters outside Parliament earlier this year. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Winston Peters isn't reading too much into the centre-right swing at a local government level, but says political parties preparing for next year's election should take a leaf out of his book and start listening to voters.
The New Zealand First leader is mounting a comeback and says people shouldn't assume next year's election result is set in stone based on the local government results last weekend.
"It would be wrong to read too much into the result, other than it was a serious rejection of some of the central government oversight and imposition on local government, and the desire for people to be in control of their own lives."
Two former New Zealand First MPs contested mayoralties at the weekend - Ron Mark was successful in Carterton while Fletcher Tabuteau lost to former National Party candidate Tania Tapsell in Rotorua.
New Carterton Mayor Ron Mark. Photo: ELLIE FRANCO / LDR
Ahead of his party's annual general meeting in Christchurch this weekend, Peters didn't want to reveal much about his campaign strategy for next year, or whether he still keeps in touch with his former parliamentary colleagues from both sides of the House.
"I've not lost my respect for the people I did respect and I'll leave it at that," Peters told Newsroom.
On whether he'd had any formal conversations with other party leaders about next year's election, Peters was hesitant to answer, saying his words on such matters often ended up being misconstrued.
For that reason, he said the answer was simply no - later adding, "I've always talked to people who make sense".
New Zealand First will gather in Christchurch at the weekend to hear from Peters and discuss policy remits that may contribute to the party's manifesto at the election, which is now roughly just a year away.
While former NZ First MP and minister Ron Mark decided to leave the party after the devastating 2020 election result, Peters said most of the former caucus is still involved in some way.
He exchanged messages with Mark at the weekend to congratulate him on his win, adding that he'd predicted a victory from the start.
Shane Jones, Fletcher Tabuteau, Darroch Ball, Mark Patterson and Jenny Marcroft are all still contributing to NZ First.
Marcroft, with Tracey Martin, had initially walked away from the party after the 2020 loss, but according to Peters, Marcroft has come back into the fold.
In January last year Marcroft told RNZ she had quit the party because she wasn't "comfortable" about a shift she had seen in its values during the last parliamentary term.
At the time she said she would consider a return to politics and the party if it realigned with her own personal values.
Speaking to Newsroom on Wednesday, Marcroft said she still wasn't a member but the party president had contacted her asking if she wanted to contribute ahead of next year's election.
At the time of writing Marcroft hadn't decided if she would attend the AGM but said she was heartened by how much the party had made an effort to change.
"There have been some big shifts internally that would allow me to return to the party in some capacity, including more women on the board and electing a gay Māori president," Marcroft told Newsroom.
Peters' contact with Martin has been limited in recent years, given she has taken on work with the government including chairing the establishment board for the TVNZ/RNZ merger.
"Tracey's in a different role now and there's a certain thing about not compromising someone's latest position, so to speak."
Peters' assessment of the current state of play is that the government is spending too much money on consumption and not nearly enough on investment.
"I'm talking about human infrastructure where they've wasted so much money and this is going to have a serious impact on our deflationary index."
Peters gives the TVNZ/RNZ merger as an example of wasteful spending, as well as billions of dollars dedicated to the health service that hasn't produced results.
"We had set aside $1.9 billion for mental health, and what's happened, literally nothing. We set aside the wellbeing plans and dashboards and every other hypersociology you can possibly have and what's happening, nothing.
"People are up against the cost of living and for a lot of people who would be in that wealthy or middle incomes, many of them are struggling and people at the bottom, sadly despite all the problems, the fundamental costs of rates, insurance, cost of living, food, everything is going the wrong way and they've done nothing about it."
Peters doesn't support the government's health reforms either.
He thinks Health NZ as a concept works because he never believed in the old District Health Board structure but has no time for the addition of the Māori Health Authority and its interacting relationship with Health NZ.
"There's always been a place for understanding that when delivering health, you need to know who you're delivering to. That would have all been possible under Health NZ."
On education Peters is irate about the level of truancy that exists and what it's doing for youth.
He says the key to truancy services is having a relationship between schools and parents, so he wants truancy services to be brought back into schools, which is the work the government is currently doing.
Truancy services were outsourced to private contractors in 2012.
To discuss youth issues and the economy, the party will this weekend host guest speakers, economist Cameron Bagrie and community youth advocate Sir Graham Lowe, at the AGM.
Peters said the party's listening tour had started around the country and will continue in the form of town hall meetings through until the end of the year.
"So, it's building on what we've got so far, our social media's gone great and our membership and people's interest in returning to focus on what we need to do in 2023 is all there.
"We're in the right space."
Speaking to Newsroom on Wednesday, Peters remained angry with the Serious Fraud Office after it announced late in the 2020 campaign period that it was laying charges against two people over the New Zealand First Foundation donation scandal.
The pair were acquitted in July and Peters says the media never printed his statements in the aftermath of the court decision.
He told Newsroom the party had learned a lot from the 2020 campaign and how it was treated and would take that into its strategy for next year.
There is a planned policy announcement in Christchurch on Sunday, but "the biggest policy announcement I'll make this weekend I can tell you in advance, we're coming back", he said.
A familiar slogan from a politician who has made a decades-long career out of coming back more than most.
As for whether he will make any announcements around a referendum on co-governance, Peters said there was already a referendum coming on that issue and the many other unmandated projects currently under way.
The date of that referendum, he says, will be known when the Prime Minister announces the 2023 election day.
*This story originally appeared on Newsroom.