Acting PM's Press Conference: Synthetics, Nurses, Gaza Flotilla, Nats, Peters Out
Winston Peters began his last press conference as Acting Prime Minister announcing coordinated government action on an apparent spike in deaths related to synthetic cannabis and announcing details of Jacinda Ardern's resumption of the Prime Minister role with his departure for the Singapore ASEAN conference on Wednesday night. He ended it repeating an impatient challenge to the National Party President over personal remarks about Peters during this weekend's National conference.
Peters also announced the beginning of recruitment for Chiefs of Staff for the Defence Force and gave his assessment of his time as Acting Prime Minister, which later raised questions (unanswered) on the Government parties' internal polling.
Other questions covered the accord on safe staffing with nurses and its implications for the current vote on the DHB collective employment offer, the government's response (under consideration) to New Zealander Mike Treen being held after Israeli forces detained a boat in the 'Freedom Flotilla' attempting to reach Gaza, former Australian Prime Minister John Howard's comments about the 2017 New Zealand election result, Winston Peters' comments about the Australian flag, the Nine/Fairfax media merger, what National President Peter Goodfellow said about Winston Peters, and whether Peter Goodfellow shoudl still be National Party President.
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