‘God defend … Winston’: The NZ First faithful gather for election 2023

Winston Peters hopes to stage yet another comeback, with fighting words ahead of election 2023.

The New Zealand First leader joined his most faithful supporters at Auckland Airport’s Holiday Inn on Saturday, ahead of the party’s official campaign launch on Sunday. The party has hired Mt Smart Stadium for the campaign launch, expecting a big crowd.

Peters and former MP Shane Jones started the NZ First AGM with jabs and attacks, delivering gags about National, Labour, ACT, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori. Peters dressed down a television news crew in the crowd, as he bemoaned “the media”. Jones attacked the World Health Organisation. The pair also poked fun at gender fluidity, to cheers and laughter from their supporters.

One of the biggest cheers of the day came when Hobson’s Pledge spokesperson Casey Costello announced she would stand for the party. Her group is opposed to Te Tiriti o Waitangi’s prominence in policy and law.

Costello revealed her candidacy at the conclusion of a speech targetting He Puapua and co-governance, as well as the Māori Party petition to make Aotearoa an official name of this country.

With Jones, Costello passed a remit committing New Zealand First to campaign to close – or significantly scale back – the Waitangi Tribunal this decade.

The NZ First election year AGM opened with a national anthem and Jones’ reading of Parliament’s prayer – “because that’s where we’re going”, he said.

The NZ First members were upbeat about the party’s chances of returning to Parliament. As the group sung “God defend New Zealand”, one older gentleman shouted “And Winston!”

Peters’ mana, and position as the uniting force behind New Zealand First, remains strong. The party is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, which means Peters, aged 78, is celebrating his 30 years as its leader.

Many things remain the same with NZ First.

Jones started his introduction by noting the familiar faces in the crowd. “I see patriots, I see nationalists,” he said.

“I see champions for a united New Zealand with one standard of citizen, one flag, one nation,” he continued.

“Not WHO guinea pigs. Not Hollywood woke flunkies.”

He went on to poke fun at gender diversity, namely transgender and non-binary identities. He joked that Labour couldn’t be an effective Government due to its acceptance of gender fluidity.

“The boat’s going round in circles because it can’t work out what pronoun to call the boat. He/she/them/they, all I know is I want them gone,” he said.

In comparison, he made a point of quoting “the Brotherhood of Man”.

“Which proves this is a New Zealand First convention and not a gender-obsessed symposium.”

Keeping the boat metaphor going, Jones said ACT wanted to sail to Wall St.

“Sadly, most of you will be thrown out of it – as you represent dead weight,” he told the crowd.

For the Greens: “They’ve insisted the boat be made out of hemp and legalised cannabis. As it sinks like a stone, they won’t notice it because they will be stoned.”

And for National, Jones told a long story where he listed their various leaders and laughed along the way.

The party debated various issues, but members united against Three Waters, their opposition to the clean car discount/ute tax, and also their concerns about “gender ideology”.

The focus on gender issues, and references to the World Health Organisation, are relatively new ground for the party. During Peters’ recent town hall meetings, he has often discussed the “freedom” issues which stemmed from the anti-vaccine movement of the pandemic.

Those Covid issues took up little time amongst party members at the AGM, although Peters’ social conservatism united the crowd. According to recent polls, NZ First has some way to go ahead of this election. It has tended to poll below the 5% threshold required to enter Parliament without an electorate seat, although the party hopes Jones could win Northland.