Winston Peters is overdue for the Retirement Home

OPINION: Winston Peters is overdue for the political retirement home. New Zealand deserves leadership focused on the mounting bills at the kitchen table, not another round of pathetic culture-war arguments over how men and women should be defined in legislation.

Peters keeps returning to the question of how legislation should define a man and a woman every opportunity he gets. Struggling families unable to afford rising household expenses might reasonably ask whose priorities are actually being served.

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There is nothing wrong with debating controversial legislation and Parliament is supposed to tackle difficult questions. However, political attention is finite, and Peters has made this particular argument a centrepiece of his campaign messaging while many struggling households want practical answers on how their wages will increase, about the lack of housing, and rising grocery and petrol prices.

What the hell is Peters doing? That question deserves more than another pity argument about fighting “woke” politics.

New Zealanders need to know what Peters is delivering to make everyday life more affordable. They need results they can see at the checkout at the supermarket, on their essential bills and when the rent comes due.

Peters has spent far too long building a reputation for silly attacks against the media. It is as if he thinks members of the press are out to get him, but they too want answers instead of show-and-tell performaces on stage under the spotlight.

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Experience should be an asset. But in this circumstance, experience means little if it is used to recycle the same confrontations while the public waits for financial relief due to the cost of living crisis.

Image: Winston Peters is pitching New Zealand First as a force against the political establishment while the party also pushes its “war on woke”, including legislation defining “woman” and “man” in law. (File)

The retirement-home suggestion is deliberately said here.

It is not an argument that older people have no place in public life because plenty contribute enormously. It is an argument that politicians, regardless of age, should know when their political act has stopped meeting the moment.

For Peters, that moment looks overdue. That is why I think the retirement home is the perfect place for this guy.

Defining words in legislation may satisfy his supporters, and they are entitled to argue their case. But that cannot become a substitute for addressing the economic strain felt across the country.

A government leader should be able to improve the lives of ordinary hard working people, not by the volume of applause at party meeting.

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If Peters wants to stay in the fight, he should fight for household budgets with the same energy he devotes to cultural battles. But I have little hope that will be happening come election time.

Otherwise, perhaps it really is time to make room at the political retirement home.

New Zealand needs proper solutions to the rising cost of living crisis, not another pathetic performance.

Winston Peters is overdue for the political Retirement Home. New Zealand deserves Better

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