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Before sitting down with Joe Stockman, Winston Peters stole a cheeky smoke. It had been a busy morning of interviews and public appearances - probably nothing by his old standards - but he nonetheless seemed to enjoy taking a moment, offering quiet hellos to students whose eyes revealed their recognition of him, and staring down into the Leith to spot the salmon running by.


 Peters remains one of New Zealand’s greatest political actors. He has a tumultuous relationship with the media, was expelled from the National Party, and has time and again played king maker in the MMP post-election shuffle. He has left an indelible mark on the political face of the nation. However, his decision to once again seek election has left people asking questions: is Peters playing out the final act of this long and illustrious political career, or is he staging the greatest comeback of the MMP era, destined once again to make the choice between Labour and National in the formation of a new government?
 
Spend the day with him, and you will quickly see his determination, not only win, but to win on his own terms. And it would be a brave man that would bet against him.
 
Back in the Hood
To look at Peters now, you would almost never believe that his entry to politics began with a land dispute in his native Northland. Peters the lawyer represented a mix of Maori and Pakeha landowners, against the then Labour government’s attempts to nationalise the coastline (and you thought that the foreshore and sea bed was a new issue). It was during this battle that Peters decided to enter politics; “I was always interested [in politics], but it became cataclysmic when I realised that [politicians] had all the power and could do what they liked”.
His first taste of politics was an unhappy time within the National Party. While he was elevated to the National front benches (the members of the party with issue portfolios) by October 1991, Prime Minister Bolger sacked Peters from Cabinet. He was finally ejected from National completely in 1993. Peters formed NZ First just prior to the 1993 election, and entered parliament again as a party leader along with Tau Henare.
 
Gotta Be, MMP
In 1996, MMP took NZ politics by storm. NZ First won 17 seats, and entered into six weeks of negotiations with both Labour and National to form a coalition government. Speculation was rife that NZ First would partner with Labour; it is believed that many voters backed NZ First with just such an expectation. In fact, as Peters recalls, the national media were referring to Helen Clark as “The Prime Minister in Waiting”. Peters refutes the idea that he had any intention to go with Labour; “Our belief has always been that you can only decide what to do when the people have spoken first, and we’ve stuck with that all these years”.
 
Talks with Labour broke down after the other essential cog in any Labour-NZ First coalition deal, the Alliance, made it clear that they would not deal with NZ First. The NZ First caucus decided that there was no longer any choice but to form a coalition with National. Says Peters, “Despite what people may think, the biggest coercive pressure on you after an election is that every country needs a government… so you really got caught sometimes with a poisoned chalice, trying to make the most of it.”
 
The Big Dog
Peters exacted a heavy price from National for his support. He was appointed Deputy Prime Minister, and the position of Treasurer, senior to the Finance Minister, was created solely to accommodate him. However, even with such a weighty title Peters could do nothing to hold the coalition together, after Jenny Shipley rolled Bolger in an internal coup to become NZ’s first female Prime Minister. Peters and Shipley never saw eye to eye, as she challenged the terms of the coalition agreement. It’s clear that Peters has little love for the Ship; “She did it all for personal reasons. This woman has no ideology, is not right, and just goes to prove the ‘Peter Principle’, that you keep rising up the ladder until you reach your level of incompetence.”
 
In 1999 Labour and the Alliance, along with support from the Greens, finally came to power. NZ First had lost 12 seats and entered into a period of malaise. It wasn’t until the 2005 election that Peters again held the balance of power, and Labour and NZ First finally went into a formal agreement. In a controversial move, Peters was made Minister of Foreign Affairs, but did not receive a seat inside cabinet. Says Peters, “I thought the job was very worthwhile, and that I could make serious changes to our appearance abroad. It doesn’t hurt to be a Polynesian in Polynesia, you know.”
 
Throughout the Labour-NZ First coalition, his relationship with the Labour caucus remained testy, as Peters sought to maintain his general independence from the government.
 
The End?
 
In the 2009 election, Peters finally lost his Tauranga seat, and with NZ First dropping below the 5 percent threshold, he was out of office for the first time in decades. However, his passion for politics continues to run strong; “I believe in politics. In a very ironic aspect of it, you can do so much damage, but it’s one of the few jobs where you can do so much good for people … Democracy has a romance and glamour about it that is worth striving for; it keeps me interested. I do not think it’s about personal power or egregious self-interest. I could have been a lot of things a lot quicker and faster, but I never did and I don’t intend to … At least I can walk into a damn room of people, and whatever they think of me, I certainly get their respect. Jenny Shipley does not, and others do not either. It’s not whether they like you, but whether you get a glint of recognition in their eye as you pass them in the street, and that’s worth something, you know.”
Or only just begun?
It is a hard road to get elected from outside of parliament. You lack the baubles of office, the free publicity, and the chance to challenge the government on the floor of the house. Peters doesn’t seem to care. He’s slowly, ever so slowly, pushing up both his party vote, and his share of the preferred Prime Minster’s rankings. Thirty percent of New Zealanders would like to see him back in government. If he can turn even a small proportion of that into votes, Peters may be back doing what he has done so many times before, holding the balance of power in the post-election scramble.