I was a member of New Zealand First from 2002-2006; 2010-2017. I have witnessed some of the strongest times in the Party history and some of the lowest. This is a view of the decay of a once centrist-nationalist party that despite lingering accusations of xenophobia was in many respects a principled organization that held Governments to account.
When I joined in 2002 the party was on the ascendancy. At a time when the centrist vote had a choice of going with Labour or National, New Zealand First, formed by ex-National M.P., Winston Peters, was pushing populist politics, promising to crack down on crime, ensure no asset sales occurred and end the Treaty of Waitangi gravy train.
I’ll confess now that in 2002 I was profoundly ignorant of the Treaty. I just wanted a party that could hold National and Labour to account and provide a genuine third party option in N.Z. politics. It wasn’t until I got to postgrad University that I started to have second thoughts about how N.Z. First addressed the Treaty of Waitangi. I have been grateful that in that time, both the National and Labour Governments have treaded cautiously until Don Brash became leader of the former in 2005.
I left the first time because in 2005, nearly every party in Parliament was found to have spent monies during the election that they were not entitled to. New Zealand First was the only one to not pay their share back. I decided not to support them in 2008 because the then Deputy Leader Peter Brown said “there are too many Asians in New Zealand”. N.Z.F. were ejected from Parliament in the election later that year and Mr Brown resigned.
I rejoined in 2011, after encountering the Deputy Leader Tracey Martin in online forums and we started talking. She assured me that the party was learning from its 2008 campaign. I gave her the benefit of the doubt, and rejoined. For a time it seemed like the party was keeping Mrs Martin’s promise in that it fielded Maori, Indian and Pasifika candidates. On the floor of the Annual Conventions most delegates came across as moderate, and the one or two who did speak against immigrants or minorities were booed or shut down.
During this time there were even some principle moves in support of human rights that would seem out of place with the current party caucus. The Youth Wing that didn’t exist prior to 2008 grew to have a cross section of people ranging from their early 20’s into their 40’s. Young, progressives who believed that there was a place for the environment, for liberalisation of cannabis, for public transport all gained a foothold.
But in 2017, there was warning sign that many were alarmed by. Former Labour Party M.P. and Cabinet Minister Shane Jones, who been expelled from Labour after allegations of corruption in his Ministerial office when he was Minister of Immigration, surfaced. More disturbingly, he was promoted straight to the top of the party with a potential cabinet minister role if the party was king maker in the election later that year. This was over and above many members who had given the party time, money and material support.
I fell out with the youth wing in May of that year. The timing was appropriate as I was studying and also getting frustrated with the lack of communications from the leadership about help for north Canterbury and Marlborough following the Kaikoura earthquake.
Following the surprise – very welcome – swing to the centre left I thought that the future looked rosy for a number of reasons. Public transport and climate change were getting a look in; the N.Z.D.F. was getting new planes to replace its aging transports and maritime patrol aircraft; the assault on beneficiaries with long term health problems was stopped. For 18 months, despite the mediocre economic performance, those unable to progress without help seemed to have a better future.
The first rustle of discontent happened in the shock of the mosques attack. Gun owners up and down the country claimed to have been brutalized by the sudden tranche of new laws, despite the promise that the original urgent legislation was just a stop gap measure. The immediate suppression of the attack video and manifesto, some claimed was an assault on freedom of speech, when in actual fact it was to stop hugely inflammatory material being circulated among militant groups.
Since 2020 though, New Zealand First has been on a steady downhill trend. In fairness, a significant portion of its voters are genuinely conservative and were not impressed with Mr Peters deciding to support the Labour Government in 2017. Nor were they impressed with the firearms legislation change following the appalling 15 March 2019 mosques atrocity. The fact that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had no experience negotiating coalition deals and probably gave New Zealand First everything that they wanted – a regional development Ministry for Shane Jones; Defence for Ron Mark (a former soldier) and a hefty portfolio (Foreign Affairs) for Mr Peters, as well as Associate Education and Minister for Oranga Tamariki going to Tracey Martin – seems to not have registered.
It began to accelerate as New Zealand dealt with the second wave of COVID-19 in the same fashion as it did the first – a sudden fast lockdown that in Auckland dragged on for 107 days. Mr Peters began regularly speaking out against the very Labour Party he had helped into power just four years earlier. Staunch party members such as Jon Reeves who I had been on reasonable terms during my membership, began to accuse me and others of being hard left and afraid to do hard work.
As the party began to gear up for the election it seemed to forget the need to screen potential candidates before nominating them. As a result fringe candidates like Casey Costello, Lee Donoghue and Kirsten Murfitt were selected. The swing to a more hard right posture began to become obvious with attacks on co-governance and 3 Waters – which was admittedly very badly handled – becoming more pronounced. During the election campaign Mr Donoghue clashed with numerous people across the debates he attended, accusing others of being woke – a term coined in 1960’s U.S. by the Black community to recognize those who are aware of and proactively against racism – and contributed to general hijacking of the anti-racism narrative that goes with the term.
Since the election, from a leftist standpoint the party has gone from bad to worse. The following became Ministers of the Crown:
- Winston Peters (Deputy Prime Minister; Minister of Foreign Affairs)
- Shane Jones (Minister for Oceans and Fisheries, Regional Development, Resources)
- Casey Costello (Minister for Seniors, Customs; Assoc. Min for Health, Police, Immigration)
- Mark Patterson (Minister for Rural Communities)
I blogged a couple days ago about Shane Jones’ role in the trammelling of legislation meant to act as checks and balances in safeguarding the environment and using our natural and physical resource in a responsible manner. It is too soon to comment on the role that Mark Patterson might play in the Government as his portfolio is Minister for Rural Communities. More harmful is the appointment of Casey Costello to be an Associate Minister for Health when she is linked to the tobacco industry, and within a matter of days of being sworn in, was announcing changes in the tobacco laws that were not signalled in election campaign promises.
Yesterday in a State of the Nation address from a N.Z. First standpoint, Mr Peters took the party to a new low by likening co-governance, which former Minister for Treaty Negotiations Christopher Finlayson said should cause nobody any unjust fear, to Nazi-era Germany. As the Nazi regime were a special kind of horror, truly unique in what they did and how they enacted their dictatorship, to liken a philosophy that all New Zealand should be embracing to one of the worst regimes of all time is next level disgusting.
How much further is this country going to descend with a three-headed hydra that seems to have the knives out for minorities, tangata whenua and our reputation on the world stage?
Leftist Kiwi Writes 
