Tuwhenuaroa
Natanahira Political reporter
New
Zealand First leader Winston Peters says this weekend’s
conference will be about rebuilding hope and opportunity, as
the party plots an unprecedented second consecutive term in
government.
Party members and candidates are gathering
in Auckland for the conference and election campaign launch,
as polling shows the party’s popularity continues to
rise.
The 11.5 percent New Zealand First received in
the latest RNZ-Reid Research poll is its third consecutive
rise in this poll and its best result in nearly a
decade.
It puts
the party on track to remain in Parliament, after
serving a term in government, something it was unable to do
in 2008 and 2020. It has also mustered several former
politicians to its cause.
Former National MP Harete
Hipango-Brownlie is the latest
in a string of former politicians to hitch their return
to Parliament to the party, along with former National MPs
Alfred Ngaro and Michael Laws, and former Labour MP Stuart
Nash also confirmed as candidates.
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Before
the conference, Peters told RNZ that, over the weekend,
there would be a focus on “the rebuilding of real hope and
real opportunity” for New Zealanders over the next few years
of government.
“It’s not full of promises on the
‘Never-Never Land’ basis, but it’s filled with statements
backed up with economic planning to take this country
forward, to turn our economy around, to uplift all New
Zealanders’ lives, to attack the cost of living, the cost of
power, the cost of energy,” he said.
Despite regularly
disparaging polls, saying New Zealand First would turn them
into “confetti”, Peters was more than willing to talk about
the party’s rise in them. He put that down to the regular
public meetings the party held.
“We’re in the room
properly, and we’ve never been far from ordinary New
Zealanders’ concerns and thoughts,” he said. “We understand
the situation that we’ve been going through, decade after
decade, of all sorts of promises made politically and
fulfillment’s not matching that.
“We’ve got a chance
to turn this around and we need to do so, but we need to do
so now. It’s one of those elections where it’s now or
never.”
On
Saturday, attendees will hear from Peters, before the
party’s roster of candidates, including former All Blacks
captain Taine Randell, are put on display.
A gala
dinner celebrating the 33rd anniversary of the party
formation will take place later that night.
On Sunday,
Peters will host a public meeting for the official launch of
the party’s campaign.
The party wants to restrict voting
rights to New Zealand citizens only, automatically enrol
all newborn New Zealand citizens into KiwiSaver with a
$1000 government contribution, buy back the Bank of New
Zealand and split
up the energy gentatailers.
A new policy on
immigration will likely be announced at the
conference.
The party’s opposition
to the Free Trade Agreement with India has seen it at
odds with its coalition partners. Peters has criticised the
deal being both “too generous” to India on immigration, and
“discriminatory” and restrictive.
“We told the New
Zealand people that [the deal] would mean open-slather
immigration from India to New Zealand, but the National
Party has just changed its course – no doubt due to poor
polling – and they have done so covertly.
“Their
officials have even discussed the importance of not
announcing these changes for the fear of the Indian
reaction,” he said. “This is bad faith.”
Peters, the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, was notably absent for the
“historic” visit
of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, away on other
business in Singapore and Japan.
In the latest
RNZ-Reid Research poll, New Zealand First climbed 0.9 pts to
11.5 percent – its best Reid Research showing since July
2017.
If the poll results were replicated at the
election, New Zealand First would return 15 MPs to
Parliament, National with 36 MPs and ACT with 10, giving the
coalition 61 seats in a 120-seat Parliament.
New
Zealand First is the last of the coalition partners to hold
its conference, with National using its to announce a
KiwiSaver policy and ACT announcing its policy on
welfare.
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