There’s already a perfectly good “Peter principle”, but perhaps we need a new one, a “Peters principle” for New Zealand politics. It could read as follows – “Whatever Winston Peters does will attract far more media attention than it deserves”.
There’s been heaps of coverage of Peters lately. Some of it is pure opinion and speculation (“Peters does his best to rise from the dead”, “New Zealand First – looking lacklustre and tired”). But some of it shows us how Peters is positioning himself for the election. There will be no deals (which Peters calls “sordid cronyism”) with other parties on tactical voting within electorates. (I wonder if Peters took that line before or after Goff ruled out any deal with NZF.) Peters is playing coy on which electorate he might stand in. He is talking tough on child abusers and promising to buy-back state assets (no surprises there). Another predictable populist play, Peters is re-opening the wounds of the Section 59 debate by proposing to dump the “anti-smacking” reform.
There have been two surprises for me in this policy pitch to the public. One is the move that is notable for its absence. Peters hasn’t (yet) played his old favourite immigration / race card. Perhaps he figures that he can’t outbid ACT when it comes to racist hysteria, and perhaps he’s noticed that ACT got no bounce from its outburst and concluded (correctly I hope) that there are no votes in the race card this time round. If so – good, it’s about damn time.
The other surprise is that Peters is looking to reach beyond his usual constituency and make a play for younger voters. Not just through the use of social media, but with a policy of real significance to students (and their families):
Peters wants to write off student loans
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is signalling plans to write off student loans dollar-for-dollar for repayments in exchange for graduates staying in the country.
“We are losing $6 billion now and we won’t get it back. We may as well forgive it and get the reciprocal, which is their working in this country and placing their future in this country,” he said. “That way we will get some of the money back because they will be working here and contributing by their taxes to our economy.” The party’s policy would halve student debt, he said.
… Mr Peters said young people would be attracted to the party because it had sound policies for training and job creation. “We expect them to come in their droves.”
That’s a very big promise indeed, and if I was a young student racking up a big debt I might just be inclined to vote for it.
I’m on record as being no fan at all of NZF / Winston Peters. But I can’t help but wonder if with this promise, he might not just have found a way back in.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress