NZ First
Build a new Auckland-to-Whangārei four-lane highway
Break up the big four energy companies
KiwiSaver from birth + buy back BNZ to build a state bank
Referendum on the future of the Māori electorates
Withdraw from the Paris climate agreement
Break up the supermarket duopoly
Select committee inquiry into banking
Oppose co-governance and UNDRIP
Inflation tax relief + stronger IRD audit
Remove "woke ideology" from the public sector
Disestablish Auckland Transport
Criticise the India free trade agreement
No privatisation of state assets (Kiwibank, Air NZ)
No changes to NZ Superannuation
Citizens-only voting — restrict the vote to NZ citizens
$1 billion fund to explore for offshore oil and gas
Quotes where NZ First politicians rubbish, ridicule or dismiss opponents.
→ Labour (Sixth Labour Government 2017–2023) (Labour)
“We've always believed that. That's why we campaigned at the last election to say how bad the inheritance we would receive was, that the cost of living was going through the roof.”
Peters made this statement in the context of the September 2025 RNZ-Reid Research poll showing that more voters now blamed the coalition than Labour for economic hardship. Rather than accepting any responsibility, Peters framed the ongoing cost-of-living pain as vindication of pre-election warnings about Labour's economic legacy, positioning the coalition as inheritors of the crisis rather than contributors to it.
→ Labour, Greens, Te Pāti Māori (Labour / Green Party / Te Pāti Māori)
“They would be an absolute circus, and utterly destroy our country economically and socially.”
Peters made this statement in his speech to NZ First's annual gathering in September 2025. He also said of the opposition parties: 'They have become the parties of moral outrage, obsessed with accusations, gotcha politics, woke ideology' and accused them of leaving NZ 'with a mess', adding: 'They've got nothing, they have left us with a mess and now shout 'you fix it', all while being encouraged by a culpable mainstream media.' He further said of Te Pāti Māori: 'They are not pro-Māori, they are anti-white' and 'They wanted a totalitarian race-based separatist country.'
→ Tākuta Ferris (Te Pāti Māori MP) (Te Pāti Māori)
“Yes, I am positive. Unlike you, you dickhead.”
Peters made the remark during Question Time in Parliament on 25 June 2025 while answering questions about coral reef protection from Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. He claimed Ferris was interrupting him. When asked to apologise he said: 'On the basis that when I was trying to get my thoughts together on the answer to Marama Davidson's questions, he was interrupting me. I apologise for calling him what I said he was.' He also asked the House: 'Is it bad language?'
→ Corin Dann / RNZ (None)
“You're paid for by the taxpayer and sooner or later we're going to cut that water off too, because you're an abuse on the taxpayer.”
Peters made this threat during a live Morning Report interview on RNZ with host Corin Dann on 23 April 2025. The interview was about NZ First's bill defining 'woman' and 'man' in biological terms. Peters also said: 'You're not hearing both sides of the story, you keep on putting the argument of the woke left... you're a disgrace to the mainstream media.' After the interview, Peters posted on social media calling Dann an 'arrogant wokester loser' and wrote: 'News flash Corin. We can't force you to stop being so delusionally woke. Welcome to the front line of the war on woke.'
→ Green Party (Green Party)
“The number of frauds committed by the Green Party in the last election knows no bounds.”
Peters made this remark in Parliament's General Debate on 2 April 2025, while being heckled by Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. He also called the Greens 'deluded' and 'woke'. The Green Party filed a formal complaint with Speaker Gerry Brownlee alleging a breach of privilege. Over four months later on 19 August 2025, Peters made a personal statement apologising and withdrawing the fraud allegation, claiming he had 'misread his notes'.
→ Labour Party / Chris Hipkins / Grant Robertson (Labour)
“Labour told us the economy was turning the corner — that there was no recession, jobs were growing, and wages were outpacing inflation. They claimed, and I quote, 'our economic plan is working.' Ladies and gentlemen, that claim was a litany of lies.”
Peters made this attack on Labour's economic record in a March 2025 speech reported by Chris Lynch Media. He also adapted the Clintonian phrase: 'It's the economy, stupid. New Zealand First is saying, it's our country, stupid.' He accused Labour of having '$22 billion of our hard-earned taxpayer money being siphoned offshore' and vowed to continue the 'war on woke'.
→ Te Pāti Māori / Rawiri Waititi (Te Pāti Māori)
“When you declare war on us, you get a reply, that's coming next year, so you have a good Christmas, 'cos you'll need it sunshine, and your big loud mouth not going to help you longer.”
Peters used his adjournment debate speech in Parliament — the last sitting day of 2024 — to spend roughly half of his 12-minute slot attacking Te Pāti Māori. The remark was delivered as a direct personal warning to the party ahead of 2025. Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi responded by breaking into song.
→ Mainstream media / journalists (None)
“deliberately, deceitfully and ignorantly misrepresented what I said”
After his State of the Nation speech, Peters issued a formal statement attacking media coverage as 'clickbait low-grade journalism' with 'dripping bias'. He also confronted waiting journalists outside Parliament, accusing them of 'lying' and spouting 'crap'. He described media coverage of the co-governance Nazi comparison as 'blatant misreporting' and said coverage of co-governance issues was 'deafening zero'.
→ Te Pāti Māori / Rawiri Waititi (Te Pāti Māori)
“I've seen that sort of philosophy before. I saw it in Nazi Germany.”
Peters made this remark in his State of the Nation speech in Palmerston North and doubled down on Morning Report the next day. He was comparing co-governance race-based theory — specifically a statement by Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi about Māori DNA — to Nazi Germany racial ideology. He added: 'The moment you argue that someone has got superior DNA to someone else you're leading to awful racial consequences' and 'I'm not backing down one iota.'
Quotes from other parties targeting NZ First.
→ Mark Patterson (NZ First)
“Sometimes it's better to watch what people do instead of what they say”
ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar criticised NZ First minister Mark Patterson for a taxpayer-funded trip to India to promote New Zealand wool exports while his party opposes the New Zealand-India Free Trade Agreement. NZ First responded that it opposes only "bad" FTAs not in NZ's interests, noted ACT had voted for the deal despite clauses it usually opposes, and turned Parmar's own line back on her.
→ Winston Peters / NZ First (NZ First)
“Members in this House are equal. For a member of the House to stand up and question whether someone is entitled to ask a question because of their country of origin is pure racism, and you should've stopped him in the beginning.”
Hipkins made this statement in Parliament after Peters interrupted Green MP Teanau Tuiono's question about climate aid by questioning why someone 'from Rarotonga' was raising New Zealand policy. Hipkins also condemned 'outright race-baiting' and 'direct racism' in the debating chamber and said Peters' conduct 'had no place in government and Parliament.'