1979: Winston Peters Gets In

May 24, 2022

By AHNZ

Winston Peters was a protege of Prime Minister Robert Muldoon (National 3.0) and in particular the ‘Barnstorming’ political style Rob had in the mid-1970s.

Peters gained the office of an MP in 1979 not by election but by Electoral Court. Malcolm Douglas, brother of another Labour MP, Roger, was booted out in favor of Peters in Hunua.

“National candidate Winston Peters claimed irregularities in the vote, and in a 24 May 1979 ruling, a Court-ordered recount resulted in 500 votes being re-classed as informal, giving Peters a majority of 192. Peters was declared elected as of election night.” – Wiki

Peters was elected by people rather than a courtroom for the first time in 1984 for Tauranga. This happened when the previous member, Keith Allen, died in office as an over-worked and diabetic National 3.0 Minister.

On 18 July, 1993, Peters split from his party which was then in power as National 4.0 and formed his own: New Zealand First. At the 1996 General Election, the first with the new MMP voting system, NZF cleaned up by gaining 17 seats in the House of Representatives. This made Peters the ‘Kingmaker’ in a bidding war between National and Labour for who would be able to form the next Ministry.

During the next, ’99 election, I attended one of Winston’s campaign events at the Kaiapoi Rugby Football Club as what I thought my civic duty to learn about what was going on. As usual I sat in the front row because it has the best view and often has empty seats because Kiwis are trying to hide themselves in the mob whereas I refuse to conform to peer pressure like that (Anarchist.) Because I was up front and significantly younger than everyone else at the meeting (teenager) it was assumed that I was with the media! I assured them I was not but just the same I was pointed out as such to Peters who came up to acknowledge me and shake my hand before taking the stage. I decided I may as well just go along with it because nobody was listening to what I had to say if it contradicted their field manual for how to conduct an election campaign by greasing up the attending reporters.

Peters comes from a family of lawyers but chose national politics for himself. He has been in the Executive all but one Government¹ since 1990 variously as Treasurer, Minister of Maori Affairs, Racing, Foreign Affairs, State Owned Enterprises, and Deputy Prime Minister twice. The man has a niche and is the best there is at what he does.

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1 Exception of John Key’s National 5.0
Ref. http://ahnz.anarkiwi.co.nz/1984-death-of-keith-allen/

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