NZ POLITICS DAILY: Can Winston come back?

Can New Zealand First come back? John Armstrong seems to think so. He’s one of the few political commentators not writing off Winston Peters yet. His Herald column – Peters does his best to rise from the dead – argues that ‘NZ First refuses to obey its critics and die. It instead looks to be in rude good health despite three years in the political wilderness’.

Yet in another very good column, Pilfering rife as minor parties face massacre, Armstrong effectively, if perhaps unintentionally, puts forward the argument for why Peters and his party will struggle: his policies are being plagiarised by other parties. Every minor party is now a ‘populist party’, and NZ First simply has a problem differentiating itself in such a crowded marketplace of populists. This is also what I argued on TVNZ News at 8 last night (watch here), and also on a blog post today: New Zealand First – looking lacklustre and tired.

The Act Party is one of those populist parties struggling for room on the political spectrum, and it also seems to have a number of its own unique problems. David Fisher covers some of the problems in his article, Dreams of Act’s demise. There’s obviously a certain amount of dysfunction still present in the party. What’s more, ex-leader Rodney Hide still won’t quite let go, and today its reported that he won’t give the traditional valedictory speech at the end of his parliamentary term – see: Hide refuses to give traditional farewell. It seems that this is simply due to the fact that he’s leaving under protest or else its because he’s not yet willing to accept that he has been ousted. Of course Hide still has a fair amount of internal sway in the party, so unlike Winston Peters, we still might not have seen the last of Rodney Hide in Parliament.

Bryce Edwards, NZPD Editor (bryce.edwards@otago.ac.nz)

Today’s content:

NZ First

John Armstrong (NZH): Peters does his best to rise from the dead

Bryce Edwards (liberation): New Zealand First – looking lacklustre and tired

Kate Chapman (Stuff): No deals before election – Peters

RNZ: Seat announcement by Peters later this month

Andrea Vance (Dom Post): Peters vows to fight on despite dwindling polls

NZH: 'We are not a cling-on party' - Peters slams PM, 'sordid cronyism'

Ally Mullord (TV3): Maori solution to child abuse - Peters

NZPA: Peters promises state asset buy-back

Newstalk ZB: Anti-asset sale policy for NZ First