The lie that is New Zealand first.
Winston Peters has always sided with popular opinion, in his words:
“It’s common sense.”
What Winston’s voters failed to realise is that it’s what ever makes common sense to him.
NZF voters are a unique bunch, a mix of the older generation, working class, traditionalists who believe in giving their neighbour a hand up when they’re down on there luck.
Core party faithful stand for New Zealanders first above anything else.
It’s the core party mandate of NZF.
But what does that actually mean ? To put New Zealanders first …
If you had vast social problems of kiwis down & out, homeless, sleeping in cars, unemployed & unemployable, putting these New Zealanders first would mean addressing the failed social policy that caused this ie Welfare dependency, drug & alcohol abuse, family violence, gambling.
Yet here you have the Minister for racing, also the deputy prime minister in a moment when NZF voters looked for Winston Peters to be the voice of “common sense” within an incompetent government (that shouldn’t even be there in the first place) to stand up for kiwis and say NO to increasing the refugee quota.
NO because we are putting New Zealanders first, we are addressing the problems of Kiwis before anything else.
NO because we are fixing the mess left by failed social welfare policy.
NO because our neighbours needed us to give them a hand up.
NO because NZF voters believe in putting Kiwis first.
Yet Winston Peters, in that pivotal moment to stand up for his voters, to show solidarity and loyalty, he simply sold them out, standing by Labour in support of increasing the refugee quota.
NZF voters are now coming to the realisation that other than a gold card with cheap bus rides, they’ve also been given a ride by a fraud for a leader only interested in serving his own needs.