Winston Peters explains his comparison of co-governance to Nazi Germany

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has explained what he meant when he compared Labour’s use of co-governance to “race-based theory”, as seen in Nazi Germany in a State of the Nation speech delivered yesterday.

Peters told Three’s AM Show his “Nazi Germany” comments were referring specifically to comments made by Te Pāti Māori regarding Māori genes.

TPM’s then-Ikaroa-Rāwhiti candidate Heather Te Au-Skipworth wrote in a 2020 column in the Northland Age that “it is a known fact that Maori genetic make-up is stronger than others”.

Act reported the quote had been included on the party’s website as part of its sports funding policy before being removed.

Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi doubled down on the comment in an interview with TVNZ’s Q&A last year.

Peters today said his Nazi Germany comments were specifically referring to that statement, which he called “awful … ugly… horrible”.

Asked whether it was appropriate to draw a comparison to the Holocaust, he said the Holocaust had stemmed from similar thinking and attacked the media for not calling out Waititi’s comments last year.

His comments yesterday drew warnings from the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand about the use of such terminology by politicians.

“It is actually offensive to the memory of those who died and to those who survived in the Holocaust to start throwing around terms like ‘Holocaust’ or ‘Nazi’ willy-nilly,” Holocaust Centre of New Zealand spokesman Ben Kepes told NZME.

“Generally speaking, as we’ve seen society grow increasingly numb to inflammatory comments, people have to get more and more inflammatory in order to get an effect, and so I think what we saw today was simply an example of the sort of breakdown of society.”

Asked after his speech by reporters what he thought New Zealand’s Jewish community would think of his comments, Peters said: “I think that they would understand entirely what I’m saying.”

Yesterday’s speech was trademark Peters, closely resembling much of what he said during the election campaign, attacking the left, Labour in particular.

Responding to Peters’ comments yesterday afternoon, Labour leader Chris Hipkins compared Peters to a “drunk uncle at a wedding”.

“Same old Winston Peters. Using racism and anti-media rhetoric to divide our country. He should be focusing on the real work of leading New Zealand forward, but that would require a plan and a vision. Sadly, this Government is lacking in both.

“I ruled out working with Winston Peters before the election. Every day that goes by I feel more and more vindicated by that decision. Kiwis deserve better than a Deputy Prime Minister who behaves like a drunk uncle at a wedding.”

During the hour-long speech, Peters also said the tax cuts promised before the election are “not impossible”, amid reports of a $5.6 billion hole the Government is facing.

He highlighted the Green Party’s troubles, including its investigation into MP Darleen Tana over her knowledge of migrant exploitation claims against her husband’s e-bike business.

Speaking to hundreds of vocal supporters at the Palmerston North conference centre, Peters verified a report in The Post that claimed the Government was facing a $5.6b hole regarding what it had promised before the election and the funds now available.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has already warned the Government could struggle to meet the surplus forecast for the 2027 year, a goal included in its pre-election fiscal plan, blaming worsening economic conditions, which will cause years of lower tax income.

After he’d finished his speech, Peters said it was not impossible to deliver the tax cuts — promised by July this year — but it was “premature” to directly answer whether the tax cuts could be achieved before the Budget in May.

“I admit that there is a construction of the economic plan going forward where all these things can be done, but not the plan I’ve heard just yet,” he said.

“However, we’re in coalition talks all the time to see what the construction pathway forward might be.”

Asked whether the Government could afford all the policies that had been committed to, Peters said: “Our ones, yes.”

He touched on many topics briefly, shifting from the workforce issues within the Defence Force to the present approach to gangs and the failed targets of KiwiBuild.

Peters spoke of the “implosion on the left”, a reference to the Green Party launching an investigation into Tana, whose husband’s business has been accused of migrant worker exploitation.

He referenced Tana not by name, but as the person who “had the moko on her chin”.

He grouped Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori together, saying they were competing to see “who can be most culturally woke”. Peters said when MPs from those parties featured in the media, they were “always over-gesturing like an Italian waiter”, which received a lot of laughs from the crowd.

Much of Peters’ speech was focused on Labour. He has bemoaned how Labour has forgotten its roots and wasn’t focusing on workers’ rights, which were at its core, and spent many minutes criticising Labour’s record while in government.

“The once-great Labour Party of Savage and Fraser has turned into the Party of Moral Outrage and Political Inertia,” he said.

Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.