Moving on from the myth of Winston the Great Statesman
Thursday, 29 January 2026
Janet Wilson is a regular opinion contributor and a freelance journalist who has also worked in communications, including with the National Party.
OPINION: Stick around long enough in politics and unsubstantiated myths stick to you like fly paper on a sweltering summer day.
Here’s one: “Winston Peters is a fine Foreign Minister, a great statesman overseas but a sleeves-rolled-up populist at home.”
This week Peters himself exploded that myth by cashing in the currency he enjoys abroad as Foreign Minister for a few anti-vaxxer votes, at the same time tarnishing New Zealand’s reputation on the increasingly choppy seas of global geopolitics.
Read more:
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National missing the message by only listening to those it wants to
It started last Friday with Peters’ endorsement of the US pulling out of the World Health Organization (WHO) and questioning New Zealand’s future role in it, using phrases such as “unelected global bureaucrats” and questioning “if taxpayers’ money is being responsibly spent overseas instead of here at home”.
By Monday Peters had softened those views to become, on RNZ, more of a whinge about the WHO making decisions without consulting “the democratic nations that comprise it”.
Peters made these comments as NZ First’s leader, not as Foreign Affairs Minister, but the fact he’ll extract the mana he’s gained from the latter for a few votes tells you that Winston is a politician who stands less on principle, while falling in behind those increasingly prepared to wield power.
As a long-time political tough-guy his schtick is reminding others to “stay in their lane” or telling Luxon to stop doing the job he’s been elected to do.
This is the most explicit he has been in his toadying to the US President; in the past he’s adopted a stay-small-and-quiet strategy, dangling the promise he’d achieve better trade.
This strategy maintains there’s no need to pointlessly draw attention to ourselves, to “catastrophise” over Trump. We should just stay out of it.
To be fair, all small and medium powers in the Western world were following this appeasement strategy all last year.
Until Davos.
No, not Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech, but Trump’s Fox interview last week dismissing Nato efforts in Afghanistan - “they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines”.
European leaders were in uproar, including UK PM Keir Starmer who called the comments “insulting, and frankly appalling”. Meantime, the New Zealand Government stayed schtum.
It took Labour stalwart Phil Goff, who Peters sacked while British High Commissioner for speaking out about Trump, to call out Peters for failing to stand up for Kiwi soldiers.
“Peters who claims to lead the patriotic party in New Zealand, has been typically silent as he has whenever Trump has lied outrageously,” Goff wrote on Facebook.
By Tuesday’s first caucus run of the year, the pushback was strong if somewhat late; Luxon described Trump’s comments as ‘incredibly disrespectful and wrong“, noting the 10 New Zealand lives lost in the conflict, while Defence Minister Judith Collins called them “ill-informed”.
And Winston? Not a word.
He may question the $2.25 million we give annually to the WHO, but he and Luxon are not ruling out joining Trump’s Board of Peace with a three-year term which can be waived if you give them an “entry fee” of more than $1 billion. They’ll be able shoot the breeze with the likes of Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Victor Orban.
For Peters, it’s much less the principled stand of the namesake from whom he quotes frequently and more like the capriciousness of the US President who he’s afraid to stand up to.
And it’s working for him and his party, big time.
A Taxpayer’s Union-Curia poll last week had NZ First on 11.9%, while RNZ’s Reid Research poll had the party in the No.3 spot at 9.8%, its highest polling since 2017.
Both polls placed Winston up in the preferred PM polls.
Pollsters pointed out that what makes this unusual is that Winston and NZ First have been able to do it while in government, but it also highlights another truth consistent with Trump voters.
More NZ First supporters are saying we’re on the wrong track, and they’re on Struggle Street.
More than half are worse off than they were last January with six in 10 finding the cost of living harder to manage.
In short, those polls are going up because more people are feeling down.
That political disenchantment has spread virus-like all around the world which New Zealand’s distance won’t save us from.
Meanwhile, the parties that represent the disenchanted are forming alliances; last November Peters met with Reform UK’s Nigel Farage, while last week Reform board member Gawain Towler met with Shane Jones and Winston.
You could attribute Winston’s success to having spent 201 days out of the country last year, or because we love a strong leader no matter how flawed.
But change agent inside the coalition, as RNZ contended this week?
Yeah, nah. Winston has always been about making this country smaller, more isolated, with fewer migrants.
He’s invariably been able to capture disenchanted voters, but whether he’ll solve their problems next term is another matter entirely.