Lacking Leadership

Luxon fails to stop Winston from bringing shame to NZ.

Every finger in the room is pointing at me
I wanna spit in their faces, then I get afraid of what that could bring
I got a bowling ball in my stomach
I got a desert in my mouth
Figures that my courage would choose to sell out now

Songwriters: Tori Amos.

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The fallout from Winston’s latest outburst of verbal diarrhoea continues as his boss fails to take appropriate action.

Fortunately, the country he targeted, China, our largest trading partner and home to one in five people, has shown the maturity to recognise that the Foreign Minister’s words said more about him than about the majority of Kiwis who were horrified by Winston’s behaviour, yet again.

China’s ambassador to New Zealand, Wang Xiaolong, posted that “a statement says more about the person that makes it than anything or anybody else”.

Behind the scenes, the Embassy made “solemn representations” over the “negative China-related remarks made by a certain politician in the New Zealand Parliament”.

Chinese ambassador to Wellington Wang Xiaolong (left) has posted about comments from Foreign Minister Winston Peters. Photo: Robert Kitchin / THE POST.

They called on New Zealand “to respect and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, and to create an open, inclusive and non-discriminatory environment for them to study, live and work in New Zealand.”

Fair enough too, but it shouldn’t have to come down to a foreign representative, a guest in our country, to point out that our Foreign Minister has crossed a line.

Coverage of Winston’s xenophobic rant is spreading around the world; the clip below is from Al Jazeera, courtesy of reader John, and the situation looks even worse in light of headlines around the world, given that our Prime Minister has taken no action to address the utterly unacceptable outburst.

MPs lined up to have their say on the anti-woke crusader who showed no contrition whatsoever and claimed his actions were about defending democracy, although it's beyond me how singling out a particular race of people negatively helps democracy.

Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni said, “Those comments are so incredibly racist and offensive, and you cannot make those types of comments as a minister, as a Cabinet minister, but particularly as the Minister for Foreign Affairs.”

The Green Party’s Tamatha Paul said she would sack him as racism is unacceptable, adding, “You can’t go around saying things like that, like, it’s not the 70s any more, Winston Peters.”

I remember that time, and I often hark back to a better era when a single income could buy a house. But the reality is that the things people said about the Chinese, about Māori, and about those with disabilities were pretty awful, and nobody wants to go back to that. Except for Winston Peters, who seems to be on a mission to bring back the worst of the past.

Even David Seymour, who generally prefers his racism to be targeted at tangata whenua, called it “attention-seeking behaviour”.

Former ACT MP Damien Smith said in an opinion piece this morning that he was ‘wrong’ about Winston, and his words “were not slips of the tongue; they were deliberate, xenophobic barbs aimed at a Kiwi citizen.”

Smith said, “I have lost faith in Winston Peters, and for a man of my political persuasion, that is a serious admission. But my loyalty lies with New Zealand, not any party. We must hold our leaders accountable—regardless of their political stripe.”

Well said, that man; even Helen Clark retweeted a section of his article, which must be a first for a current or former ACT MP.

This isn’t Helen’s first dance with Winston, of course, and it wasn’t her first tweet on the matter, in which she said, “This has gone over too many lines now, you could not feel that the relationship with China can be adequately managed by Winston Peters. You expect the foreign minister to manage relationships. Diplomacy is the job”.

So what about the person who mattered, the guy in charge, the guy who has no portfolios because his special sauce, we’re led to believe, is his ability to manage the team?

PM Luxon said that Winston’s comments were intended to “get the media and other politicians to talk about him instead of the issues Kiwis are facing”. Given how badly things are going, from the economy to the health sector, you’d think Christopher would be quite happy with a distraction from the cost of living and everything else National has failed to improve.

The latest IPSOS report makes grim reading for the government, with the Labour Party considered the most capable of addressing the top 5 issues Kiwis identified as important:

Image: IPSOS

In fact, of the top 20 issues, National was only considered more capable at Law and Order, which is ranked as the ninth most important issue. The two major parties were ranked the same on defence, but that was the last-placed issue.

When the Labour Party is seen as more capable than National on the economy, you know the blue team are in trouble. Not because they’re any better at running things; in fact, over the long term there is essentially no difference. It’s because people have been drummed into believing that National are the people to manage the economy.

Given the way things are trending, you might think Luxon would be better off doing the decent thing and sacking Peters, even if it meant a snap election, because things are only getting worse and the long-promised recovery remains as elusive as ever.

So what did our fearless leader say?

“To our Kiwi-Chinese community, National and I back you, and to every New Zealander who wants representatives focused on the issues that matter to you, rather than attention-seeking for cheap headlines, Party Vote National.”

Absolutely no consequences for Peters; all Luxon cares about is his own party vote, and he shows no interest in real leadership. It’s not really good enough, is it?

Shane Jones doubled down, saying that he and Peters were "historical foundation New Zealanders" and Xu-Nan "should know his place". Could it be any more blatant that the party who shrieks about all New Zealanders being equal are a bunch of hypocrites?

There must be backbench National MPs who are disgusted by Luxon’s lack of action; I know I sure am

Luxon and Winston. Image: META.

Winston Peters bent over backwards to accommodate the US, remaining silent on Gaza for diplomatic reasons, and I detested him for that; now his behaviour towards China is unacceptable; he simply cannot continue as Foreign Minister now that our partners in China know what he really thinks of them.

What we need is a leader with courage and a desire to do the right thing, and there is only one Chris for that job.

Alternatively, if you want to show you appreciation you could Buy Me a Coffee, for whatever amount you like.

Have a great Friday, folks, and take care, all you lovely people.

Ngā mihi,
Nick.

To end today, here is the magnificent Tori Amos with Crucify: