Here’s some corrospondence which came through my email this morning from the New Zealand First political party, my response, and their reply.
It wasn’t Parliament’s session on the 30 July 2026, but rather on the 29 July 2026. And, if you read everything that lead up to Winston’s comment, he was actually doing great work as a zealous advocate for legitimate issues which myself and other New Zealand’s agree with – how poorly the government responded to the COVID-19 crisis: https://hansard.parliament.nz/hansard-transcript/2026-07-29/debates-general-debate?sId=db1ee394c5cd21dc61bd7b2a4edf389b
And I think he was on a roll!
And as Will Smith recognised four years ago when he gave Chris Rock a slapping, “At your highest moment, be careful—that’s when the devil comes for you.”
Here’s Hansard in its entirity, just so Winston’s comment is put into context:
General Debate
Hon DAVID SEYMOUR (Deputy Prime Minister) (14:58): I move, That the House take note of miscellaneous business.
I’m proud to lead this ACT team in this House. We may not be the biggest, the loudest—we may not be the newest—in New Zealand politics, but we are the most effective and consistent party when it comes to unlocking New Zealand’s potential.
Let me count the ways. Just today, we saw the first oil and gas exploration permit issued in this country in eight years since the Labour – New Zealand First – Green Government banned them. We were right then to oppose it, and we were right now when we put oil and gas exploration back on the table so New Zealanders can provide for their own energy future.
Just last week, we saw resource management law reported back to Parliament, with a tremendous effort by Chris Bishop and our own Simon Court working together to ensure that the biggest handbrake on New Zealanders prosperity is let off so that Kiwis can get on using their own property under a law based on property rights. Again, the ACT Party has been consistent, because this law will not have Mana Whakahono ā Rohe or iwi participation agreements as were put in by the National Party and the Māori Party 10 years ago. They are now gone.
We’ve seen infrastructure funding and financing law passed so that Kiwis can not only build more homes under this new resource management law but that the pipes and the pumping stations to connect those homes to opportunity—meaning education and jobs—can be funded and financed too. That is something we have campaigned for a long time. I was pleased to hear Chris Bishop point to the efforts of, once again, Simon Court making that happen. After this debate, the Parliament will consider two bills, both of which have been long in the planning, intense in the work, and important to the future of this country.
The first is the Arms Bill. The old Arms Act from 1983—a good year, I might add—had not aged as well as some products of that year. In fact, it looked like an old bicycle tyre, with so many patches. Until along comes Nicole McKee to give a brand new Arms Act, including a separate arms administrator, that will keep the public safe while treating licensed firearms owners with the respect and dignity deserved by law abiding New Zealand citizens, which, in case anyone forgot, they are—another area where ACT has stood against the whole Parliament to arrive where we are today. When others wavered, we were principled and looked to the North Star, only to be proven correct.
After that bill, we’ll see the Employment Leave Bill, the replacement for the Holidays Act, which is so bureaucratic and so complicated that even Government departments, with their vast resources, have not been able to fairly calculate Kiwis’ pay, let alone small business. When Brooke van Velden took it on, former Ministers from National and Labour took to Facebook and they said, “Good luck, girl, but this is not going to be an easy rodeo.” Brooke van Velden threw out the work that had been done, because that work was unworkable, started again, and this afternoon New Zealand will have common sense in holiday pay, a task that had been failed at for 10 years by successive Ministers from nearly all parties.
Just last week, we celebrated record school attendance, the best term 2 school attendance in 10 years, and that is unlocking New Zealand’s potential in a very real way. The work this Government is doing is important—Erica Stanford making sure we’ve got a good Curriculum, that we’ve got good teachers, and that they’re well trained and have the latest pedagogy in all matters—but none of it makes any difference if the children aren’t actually at the school. The honour for that goes to the parents and the children who got it done and got to school despite the carping about a fuel crisis, but I’m proud to have played a minor role in revamping the policies to have made some of that possible.
That is just a small selection, a current selection, of things that have happened in the last two weeks, and today, that the ACT Party—not the loudest, not the biggest, not the newest, but certainly the most consistent and effective on the issues, bringing about real change to unlock the potential of this great country. I can’t wait to bring another and even bigger team yet again. While it is wrong to refer to the absence of members, we can talk about forthcoming members: Henry-mania is coming here to Parliament.
Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance) (15:03): We are at a very exciting time in the term. This is the time when parties start announcing their election manifestos in anticipation of the general election, and our party has taken great pleasure in announcing some of our ideas for building the future that New Zealand deserves. Meanwhile, the Labour Party has also started making some announcements of their own. Now, how’s that going for them? Well, it has been observed—not just by me but by many others—that the more policy they announce, the lower their polling goes. The small target strategy which Chris Hipkins was choosing, by which the least he said the better he would poll, is, sadly for him, coming to an end.
What have we had from the Labour Party? Well, it has been, I think, a bit like watching one of those episodes of Grand Designs—you know, the ones where the beautiful, aspirational couple sit down and they say, “Let’s design a spectacular mansion.” They skip over the whole bit about the budget and the fact that it might have to be practically achievable and you might have to pay for it, and they sort of think that they can build the whole thing on a fantasy budget.
Then the episodes of Grand Designs play through and that same aspirational couple just look quite surprised and dejected when it turns out they’ve run out of money halfway through the project and all they have is four walls without a roof. Well, the looks on the faces of those people on Grand Designs is very similar to the looks on the faces of the members opposite me today. They’re looking a little sad. They’re looking a little dejected. Because here’s the thing: fundamentally, the question at the election is not whether things are perfect in New Zealand right now. Of course they are not. The question for New Zealanders is: are we going forwards or do we want to go back to the prescription of the last Government?
The data is compelling, because let’s think about where we were three years ago. Inflation at 7.3 percent; today, yes, too high at 4.1 percent, but nothing like what Hipkins managed to drive it up to on his watch. Food inflation, now at 2.8 percent; was 12.3 percent under the Labour lot. Rent inflation; rents which had increased by more than $100 a week under the last Government are now having the lowest increases in 25 years of New Zealand’s history. GDP growth—the growth of our economy; we were growing three times as fast as Australia in the first three months of the year and twice as fast as the United States. Business investment is up, exports are up, business confidence is improving, and Treasury are forecasting real wage growth and 220,000 more jobs.
What do Labour have to say about this? Well, they say it’s terrible. Mr Hipkins gets all offended when he’s asked how he would pay for his promises. Here’s the thing: all he has proposed so far is more taxes, more borrowing, more red tape, and more spending. That comes with a hidden bill of $18 billion. And so he doesn’t want to answer how he pays for that bill.
But the good news is, guys—the good news is that the Greens have the answer. They have worked out how to pay for the bill. And here’s what the answer reads like: wealth tax, inheritance tax, land tax, gift tax, company tax hike, personal tax hike, new property taxes. Te Pāti Māori have a suggestion too; they want a ghost house tax. Now, it isn’t clear, members ,whether this is just referring to the ghosts of Te Pāti Māori past, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Tākuta Ferris, but nonetheless, that’s what they want, a ghost tax.
What we have is a very clear case of Labour putting forward prescriptions that will not solve the challenges that New Zealand faces. I just want to mention here another regression to the past that got played out on Radio New Zealand today, because Vanushi Walters, on behalf of the Labour Party, was asked whether she would support flexible wage provisions, and what she said is she would be more mindful of World Health Organization guidance about the need for women to stay at home and breastfeed. While welcome to 2026; New Zealanders don’t want your paternalism. They want parents to choose. Labour haven’t learnt their lessons. They want to tell you what to do in your own family. They want to tax you more. They want to drive up inflation. And New Zealanders won’t vote for it. Bring on 7 November.
Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Labour) (15:08): Well, I’ve never heard more bravado trying to cover over the fact that the Government’s failed to take action on the cost of living than that contribution from the Minister of Finance. If I could summarise her contribution, her entire defence of her record is that we’re going backwards less quickly.
Right now in New Zealand, there are over 1,300 nursing jobs sitting empty in hospitals across the country. We all know how busy nursing jobs are, and while those roles sit empty, people are not getting the care they need. Under National, there are huge delays in hiring staff. That’s why there are so many gaps and why it takes so long to get the care you need. Christopher Luxon won’t let hospitals hire the staff they need. When someone leaves a role, it can take months to get approval to replace them—in one case in Wellington Hospital, over a year. Our hospitals are busier than ever; yet, over the past two years, the nursing workforce growth has completely stalled, and, in that time, hundreds of nursing graduates were left without jobs in our hospitals. Our hospitals are struggling and New Zealanders continue to wait for care. Our graduate nurses, they’re already trained—they were ready to work, but they’re forced to go to Australia.
Of course, we have raised these issues with Simeon Brown. What has Simeon Brown been doing? Throwing long tantrums on his Facebook when the truth about vacancies is reported by journalists; passing laws to make every doctor and nurse in a public hospital a public servant so they can silence their criticism of him; siccing his personal troll farm on to a journalist who asks questions about appointments to the Medical Council. Removing the independence of professional regulators to make them kowtow to his ministerial edicts; disestablishing Māori voice in the health system, because Māori have a tendency to disagree with him; repeating lies about the findings of a royal commission. And he never pays this House the respect of actually answering a question.
Well, I’ve worked for 20 years as a doctor, and I can diagnose a case of Napoleon syndrome when I see one. He spends most of his time on vindictive little hit jobs on me, on journalists, on unions, on medical professionals, and doesn’t actually run the health system.
Perhaps if he were focused on his job, he would’ve paid attention to the official warnings and that due diligence on the rapid-build ward at Waikato Hospital would’ve been done. Perhaps if he did his job, they’d have that ward already. Actually, it was planned originally for completion last week.
National promised to fix the health system, but, three years on, things are worse. Health costs are soaring right in the middle of a cost of living crisis. GP costs have gone up 21 percent under Christopher Luxon. National has no plan to reduce the cost of basic care, and that’s why people end up sicker and in our emergency departments.
Just today, it was reported that Christchurch Hospital is in code red almost on a daily basis. A doctor there said that practice made it impossible to deliver the standard of care that patients deserve. “You can’t ask them intimate questions [in a corridor], you can’t examine them”, he said. “It’s very difficult to do tests … in [a corridor] … things like ECGs and blood tests are challenging … . Patients don’t have call bells, so they can’t call for help [when something goes wrong]. It’s a dangerous place”—this is a doctor describing a public hospital as a dangerous place. “You certainly can’t offer good care”, he says, “It’s substandard care.” He said patients were often left in corridors overnight. “You can easily have 20 [or] 30 patients waiting in the [corridor] … for hours.”
Right now, the reality in public hospitals includes rats, cockroaches, fleas, and leaky buildings. Let’s not forget that National has cut the maintenance budgets for hospitals. Waitākere Hospital was promised 30 beds; it’s now been revealed they’re only getting 11.
Labour is the only option to stop National’s cuts. We have a plan to make sure that care is affordable for every New Zealander. We’ll back doctors to set up clinics right across New Zealand. We’ll make sure people can see a doctor when they need it so that a hospital is there for emergencies. I ask you: what will our health system look like after another three years of National’s cuts? Well, New Zealand can’t afford to find out.
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) (15:13): That would be one of the most ridiculous speeches made by somebody that should not be in this House. There’s a COVID inquiry out today, and, amongst other things, it points out that she and Chris Hipkins, in terms of the 100,000 young people, gave them treatments which they should never have got. There she is sitting there, and the first thing she did when she was asked that question in the House by me was she and Hipkins said they didn’t know. Well, all the evidence out there today says they were not telling the truth. They knew. What on earth is she doing here when times will come when there’ll be all sorts of civil cases being brought against her and Hipkins—and how he could still be the leader of the Labour Party is beyond me—because they were irresponsible in the extreme. You’ve been found out for the useless, hopeless personality you are.
What’s worse is Hipkins, Verrall, Robertson, and Ardern refused to turn up to give public evidence after being questioned. We now know why.
Ingrid Leary: Point of order, Mr Speaker. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I understand we’re supposed to not just use second names, and the speaker has referred to many of my colleagues by their second names without using their full names.
SPEAKER: I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We’ll start his time again. The Rt Hon Winston Peters—please use full names.
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: From the moment we saw the COVID inquiry terms of reference, we were against it, because they were grossly inadequate. No proper inquirer or commissioner would have taken the role on, given how limited the terms of reference were. Here we come now, despite that, Hipkins, Verrall, Robertson, Ardern—
SPEAKER: No—no, no.
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —refused to turn up to an inquiry.
SPEAKER: Yeah, no, look—
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: These people were responsible—
SPEAKER: Sorry—sorry, sorry. Look, we’ve just given you an extension of time so that you can actually say Chris Hipkins, Dr Ayesha Verrall, and others, so that will satisfy other members of the House.
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: All right. Well, four leading Labour Party Ministers—past Ministers—refused to turn up to an inquiry. How damn arrogant! And there she is, walks out of the room, the former Minister of Health—wouldn’t even turn up to the inquiry because you know why? If anybody asks the right question, she’s going to be a goner. The original sham inquiry even failed to identify that Chris Hipkins and Verrall knew about advice that highlighted danger to under-17-year-olds having two shots and suffering from myocarditis. They knew about it, and then they claimed they didn’t know.
Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan: Are you vaccinated?
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I’m not making it up, sunshine. I noticed you came here five minutes ago. Go back to your own country—that’s where they lie like a flatfish, but they don’t lie like that here, all right? This is called a democracy—this is called a democracy, unlike what you’re used to. Go back to where you’ve come from, you loudmouth, and maybe you’ll learn something about the political system of New Zealand in time before you go streaming out of here in three months’ time.
The fact is, it’s not informed consent if people don’t know. That’s the second thing; the mainstream media have been silent on this issue. They have been a damn disgrace to let responsible Ministers get by. Guess why! Because they all got sucked into the podium of truth—unbelievable. They all got sucked into the podium of truth. You’ve got people who are trying to come back to Parliament who called all those protestors out there—rightfully, after they were losing all their business after 30 or 40 years—this person called those people out there the river of filth.
Hon Shane Jones: River of filth.
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The river of filth. Not only did he say that, and he wants to come back to Parliament, but 12 times he wouldn’t declare a document he was required to do as a Minister—12 damn times! Then they have a huge article in the Sunday paper—no mention of that whatsoever about the river of filth. What on earth are the mainstream media doing in this country? They’ve sold out, and on this issue in particular, they were the worst, because they said that anybody who went down there was complying with breaches of the law. Anybody who went down to speak to those people rightfully protesting in a democracy that’s been going since 1854 with the right to say, “I disagree”, was being shut down and gaslit by the media of this country. This is a whole disgrace.
You know something? Here we are—here we are, look, the commission also found that more than half of the $60 billion COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund, spread across more than 800 programmes, was not directly related to the pandemic. More than half of the $60 billion was not even related to the pandemic. This has left New Zealand carrying higher debt, higher costs of living, and higher everything as a consequence—and she has the audacity to get up here and criticise the Government on this side of the House and say that Labour’s the only help they’ve got. The only hope for desperation, despair, and bankruptcy is what we’ve got if Labour’s the next Government, and we’re going to do our utmost to make sure that does not happen. That’s one promise I make to New Zealanders: no matter what happens, we’re going for broke—we’re on a mission to stop these people ever getting back into Government again, because their irresponsibility knows no bounds, and their record is just dreadful.
How can two people responsible—and there will be many, many people who will be short of life, or dying early, or dying unnecessarily because of this second vaccination, and who will have on their lawyer’s plate the very people who were responsible—persons called Chris Hipkins and Ayesha Verrall. And here they sat in this Parliament. How could Labour even bear to have them anymore as their leaders when they’re as guilty as sin. But I want to know this from the mainstream media: why aren’t they asking questions? Why did it take Mr Cheung to do the proper article? Pages and pages of identified—Derek Cheung has done this country a favour. But why has it been so remote? Just one guy getting behind the scenes, doing the hard work, finding out the detail. We owe him a debt of gratitude, because the truth is coming out.
I see those Labour members over there, heads down now—not shouting out now, are they? Because they’re all guilty by your association. By your deeds, we know you. You’re damned useless. You should have been protesting back then. In whose interests? In the interests of your constituencies, in the interests of ordinary people—
Hon Kieran McAnulty: Keep slurring, old man.
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —in the interests of young people. No, no, no no—I’m not losing my hair. I might be growing old, but I ain’t losing my hair like somebody I know—
Hon Kieran McAnulty: Lost his mind.
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —and besides which—look, mate, you were senile when you were 20 years younger. You were senile then. You weren’t making sense then. I know you’re just jealous, but I’ll tell you what: I’ll be around here long after you’re gone.
I just wish Winston let one of his Members of Parliament make the attack, not him as a Member of the Crown, and certainly not him as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Now he’s given himself no way to face-savingly appologise.
——– Original Message ——–
| Subject: | Re: Re: You asked. We delivered. |
|---|---|
| Date: | 2026-07-31 10:12 |
| From: | Action <Action+noreply@nzfirst.nz> |
| To: | <james@jameshogan.nz> |
Thank you very much for your correspondence which has been received by NZ First’s Communications Team in Parliament. We have read your message, made note of your sentiments and have summarised them in our weekly report.
If your message falls outside of our Ministers’ and List MPs’ responsibilities, expresses a personal view, or is copied to multiple Members of Parliament, then your opinion will be noted and your correspondence may be transferred to another office, or there may be no further response to you.
We receive a large amount of mail, and it is not always possible to personally reply. That said, your comments, issues and concerns are important to us. We appreciate them and take them seriously.
We are pleased to be in this coalition government, and it’s thanks to our supporters and people like you who take the time to write and provide input that we can advance pragmatic solutions for all New Zealanders.
Kind regards,
NZ First Leader’s Office
——– Original Message ——–
| Subject: | Re: You asked. We delivered. |
|---|---|
| Date: | 2026-07-31 10:11 |
| From: | James Hogan <james@jameshogan.nz> |
| To: | Winston Peters <action@nzfirst.nz> |
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