Deputy PM Winston Peters has kept a low profile over the last month or so, partly because he belongs in the category of
people most at risk from Covid-19. Peters turned 75 earlier this month, and towards the end of last year he was
reportedly, laid low with a serious infection after a serious operation. Perhaps as a consequence, Peters has not been in Wellington at any of the Covid briefings, and spent the entire Level Four lockdown on his property in Northland.
So…yesterday’s speech by Peters about this country’s foreign policy response to Covid-19 had several purposes in mind. Primarily, it helped to dispel any “Where’s Winston?” sentiments during this time of
national crisis. All along, it seems that he’s been playing a behind-the-scenes role that’s been marked by ‘highly
dynamic diplomacy’, no less. Peters also using his speech to assume his usual underdog stance, by portraying himself as
resisting early Ministry of Health advice that this country should consider closing its borders entirely, even to its
own returning citizens. No way. Jose. Not if Peters had anything to do with it :
These decisions were neither straightforward nor without debate. Indeed, the Ministry of Health recommended a total
shutdown of the border, including to returning New Zealanders.From its health perspective this was understandable and
appropriate advice. But the Coalition Cabinet rejected that advice because it was and is inconceivable that we will ever
turn our backs on our own.
Yep, Winston Peters can be trusted to always put New Zealanders First. To that end, he’s apparently been working his 75
year old butt off, taking calls from 23 fellow Foreign Ministers from all around the globe, “ from the very first call
with China’s Wang Yi, to the latest with Prime Minister Marape from PNG” …He’s been heading a 400 strong MFAT team
“working three shifts” in a 24/7 emergency response effort! He’s been captaining a crew of “60 ambassadors, High
Commissioners and Consuls-General” involved in helping New Zealanders spread across 150 countries! It has been “the
largest and most important consular operation” in MFAT’s “storied 77 year history !” etc etc.
You get the drift. The general public may have been diverted by its 1pm bouts of afternoon delight with Dr Ashley
Bloomfield, but…silently, stealthily, Peters and his crack team of operatives have been manning Mission Control, hitting
the phones and doing whatever it takes to bring our people home. And if, on reading Peters’ speech, you happen to feel
that Peters is maybe blowing his own horn a little too loudly , we should keep in mind that Covid-19 regardless, this is
an election year. In that respect, yesterday’s speech was a useful microcosm of the strengths and weaknesses that New
Zealand First is taking into Election 2020. It wants to brag about its achievements as a key part of the government,
while posing as the watchdog keeping the very same government in line.
Right now, NZF is fighting for survival. If it is going to reach the 5% MMP threshold it needs Peters back, front and
centre. As the king-maker, as the wise old head keeping a promising young PM on track…and as a reliable safety net when
well-meaning MoH officials try to lead the PM astray with some OTT nonsense over border closures. Give Peters points at
least, for trying. It is really, really hard to project yourself as being an underdog within an administration in which
you happen to be the deputy leader, but Peters gave it his best shot in yesterday’s speech :
One criticism is that we should have closed our border sooner, that we did too little too late. Another criticism was
that the government’s response has been too myopic and captured by advice from the Ministry of Health. Both critiques
could not be further from the truth.
Right. So why mention the untruthful critique at all…? Could it be because other voices on the centre-right (eg Simon
Bridges) have been attacking the government for putting public health priorities to the fore – and presenting the
National Party as the sole champion and best custodian of the interests of business ? However clumsily, Peters is
signalling that he too, is no fan of public health zealotry at the expense of fellow Kiwis suffering from the impact of
the virus. Evidently, Kiwi travellers stranded in Peru are not all that different from Kiwi firms stranded without cash
flow.
Unfortunately, this is a warning shot about how the election campaign could easily end up being framed. Yes, the
centre-right will patronisingly concede, the coalition government did a pretty good job of the womanly tasks of caring
and sharing – but thanks lady, it now behooves the public to call in a man who understands the needs of business. A man
tough enough to make the hard calls required to strike a ‘common sense’ balance between lives and livelihoods. And if
more people die as a result, then hey…that only shows that the toughlove is working and firm resolve must now be shown
etc etc.
As in the trenches of WW1, the Covid 19 crisis will provide the perfect opportunity for incompetence to depict itself as
firm leadership under fire. (Bury the dead, but stay the course.) On past performance, Simon Bridges could be just the
incompetent man for the job. Peters should be asked to put a sock in the self-regard, and become the coalition
government’s attack dog.Foreign Policy Populism
In a separate effort at populist diplomacy, Peters has also joined Australian PM Scott Morrison’s call for an inquiry
into the origins of the Covid-19 crisis, and its route of transmission. In the process, Peters has shrugged off any need for New Zealand to fear Chinese retaliation :
Peters said he was not worried about any similar repercussions for New Zealand because of personal assurances given to
him. "The Chinese at the very highest level have promised me over the years...that they don't behave that way, and I
take them at their word."
Hey. someone should tell Beijing that everything’s cool. Because that’s not the mood they’re in right now.
On April 27, Beijing’s ambassador in Canberra, Cheng Jingye, hit back on Canberra’s earlier call for a probe [into
Covid-19] with threats of economic retaliation in an interview in the Australian Financial Review, hinting that it would
target key Australian sectors like trade and education. “Maybe the ordinary people will say, ‘Why should we drink
Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?” Cheng said. “The parents of the students would also think … whether this is the
best place to send their kids.”
Again this is Peters using his foreign policy rostrum for electioneering purposes here at home. Why on earth is he
putting this country in the firing line with Morrison and Donald Trump in calling for an inquiry widely seen – and not
only in Beijing - as an empty, scapegoating exercise, and as an extension of the US trade and diplomacy war with China ?
Does Peters really think that any inquiry launched and endorsed by the Trump administration, Australia and New Zealand
is going to get to the bottom of whether the virus originated in the Wuhan wet markets, or in a Wuhan biowarfare lab?
Lining up with the US and Australia against Beijing is precisely what New Zealand diplomacy has been at pains not to do over the past three years. At MFAT, our diplomats must be tearing their hair out at how Peters has just cavalierly
junked years of careful positioning, in order to score a few populist points on the 2020 campaign trail. Can the
election prospects of NZF really be this desperate ?
The origins of the virus and its routes of transmission can and should be left to the academics. Our governments should
await their findings, not try to lead them in order to score a few anti-Chinese points among the redneck vote here at
home. Lets be clear about the risks we’re running. As previously explained in this column….in the wake of Covid-19, New Zealand is going to be even more dependent on China as the major, most reliable market for our beef, sheepmeat, dairy products and kiwifruit. China will also be, for the foreseeable, the main manufacturing and supply source of PPE gear and (eventually) of Covid
anti-viral treatments and vaccines. Peters has just put all of that at risk.
By all means, criticise China for its actions in the South China Sea, for its forays into the Pacific or for its
attempts to buy and foster influence here. But this “inquiry” call is utterly pointless. Why alienate China by joining
forces with Trump and Morrison on this issue…We’re already seeing a round of trash talking and threats of trade
retaliation. What benefits are there for New Zealand from making ourselves a junior player in this kind of exercise?
Does Trade Minister David Parker think that this is a risk free path for us to be heading on down ?
Footnote : As New York governor Andrew Cuomo argued a few weeks ago, it is false logic to claim that a choice exists between saving lives and saving the economy.
My mother is not expendable, your mother is not expendable and our brothers and sisters are not expendable, and we’re
not going to accept the premise that human life is disposable, and we’re not going to put a dollar figure on human life.
The first order of business is to save lives, period.
Obviously….the economy only ends up worse off if we open up prematurely, trigger a second wave of infections, and then
have to zigzag in and out of lockdown. But there’s a moral issue involved, too. As Cuomo added only a couple of days ago
“New York State has avoided 100,000 infections because of the sheltering-at-home orders.” The “economy uber alles”
approach may seem like feisty tough guy politics, but it also comes with a body count.
Earlier this week, columnist Suzanne Moore made the same point : sure, she says, there are business people willing to tell the media that the economic lockdown will destroy more lives
than the virus. Funny that the GFC didn’t inspire the same business leaders into similar outpourings of altruistic
concern for the vulnerable :
It is a pity they didn’t speak up after the last financial crash, which ushered in a programme in which the very poorest were punished for the sins of the bankers…..
The economy has shrunk. We already know that, Moore says. But, regardless….
We can grow it again, and more equitably, if the political will is there. It can be resurrected. The dead are locked
down for ever. Stop this inane talk of saving lives versus saving the economy. It is a false binary. Health is wealth.
If we don’t understand that now, we never will.International Jazz Day
Today, hepsters, is International Jazz Day and so…here’s Art Pepper. With a lot of help from his wife Laurie, Pepper
wrote Straight Life, which is still the best account of the jazz life ever published. Viewers of the sturdy TV detective series Bosch will know how much Harry Bosch idolises Pepper, and there’s a sweet interlude in season’s one’s episode ten where the
detective explains to his daughter how Pepper wrote “ Patricia” for his own – estranged – daughter.
And as an aside, here’s a fine jazz track by Melanie Safka, who started out as a Jacques Brel type chanteuse before she
became a pop star in the 1970s. Again, that’s Art Pepper providing the sweetener…