PM Will Not Step In Over Peters' Comments In RNZ Interview

Thursday, 24 April 2025, 6:09 pm
Article: RNZ

Soumya Bhamidipati, in London
Morning Report

The Prime Minister says he will not intervene over comments by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters about RNZ's funding.

Speaking in London, Christopher Luxon said he was aware of but had not listened to the fiery Morning Report interview in which the acting prime minister accused the public broadcaster of being biased and seemingly threatened to cut its funding.

Peters objected to questioning over his party's proposal to define the term "woman" as "an adult human biological female" and "man" as an "adult human biological male" across all laws.

Towards the end of the interview, he accused the broadcaster of running the line of his opponents: "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".

Labour leader Chris Hipkins called for Luxon to step in, saying the comments were unacceptable.

But Luxon said he had no intention of doing so.

"Probably words that I wouldn't use, but frankly, I think Winston Peters, after 40 years in public service, and his mode of communication is well understood.

"I just don't think it would be any surprise ... he has a rather Winston way of communicating with media where he's going to push back on journalists, as is his right to do so.

"With respect to the funding of RNZ, that is a decision taken by Cabinet as part of a Budget process each and every year and it's the same process here."

Luxon did not directly answer questions about whether the remarks were appropriate for an acting prime minister to make, or whether it was proper for Peters to threaten funding cuts even if the decision did not lie with him.

'Useless and unnecessary'

Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the Deputy Prime Minister has lost sight of the real issues such as the health system and climate change in favour of an imported culture war over NZ First's plans for a private member's bill on defining a man and a woman.

"I would say it's about as useless and unnecessary as New Zealand First's frequently reproposed bill to make English an official language but this one paints a target on the back of minority groups and therefore it is unfortunately dangerous."

Defining a man and a woman was not "a real problem" for the country, she told Morning Report on Thursday.

It was "deeply misogynistic" to reduce women to their reproductive capacity or their private parts, she said.

However, she pointed to the Counting Ourselves report, which was released in February, and covered the views of 2500 trans and non-binary people.

"We can see very clearly right now immediate and pressing issues with regard to the exclusion, the harm and the hatred they're subjected to, whereby 77 percent of them have experienced high or very high psychological distress in the last year."

Swarbrick said the UK Supreme Court decision which defined a woman and a man was actually mainly about Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies which were not supported by Peters.

"This is an utterly cynical playbook whereby we are seeing New Zealand First rinsing the biscuit tin with the latest outrage."

She pointed to other similar bills NZ First had supported such as "the woke banks bill," DEI and use of bathrooms.

If the government cared about women it would be providing better funding in areas such as women's health care and early childhood education, fixing the pay gap, and paying for programmes to stop violence against women, she said.

It was also "astounding" Peters had used science as part of his argument for defining a man and a woman, yet he did not rely on science when it came to climate change.

'A form of censorship' - Labour

On Wednesday, Hipkins said it was unacceptable for a minister to threaten an independent media organisation's funding because he objected to how he was being interviewed.

"Ministers don't have to participate meekly in an interview. If they don't like the direction it's going on, they're absolutely entitled to push back on an interviewer.

"But where I think Winston Peters absolutely crosses a very bright line is where he says, because I don't like the way you were interviewing me, we're going to cut your funding."

He said Luxon needed to enforce the expected standards of his ministers and "at the very least" make it clear to Peters that it should never happen again.

"Threatening to cut funding is a form of censorship. It is totally and utterly wrong."

The on-air clash

Peters' on-air criticism came towards the end of an interview after broadcaster Corin Dann raised criticisms lodged by Labour and the Greens.

Peters accused Dann of advancing the views of NZ First's opponents and said the question line was "so typical" of RNZ.

"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."

Dann told Peters it was his job to put up an argument.

"I'm sorry but you're not going to accuse me of putting up their arguments and believing in them. I'm the devil's advocate here and I put up the argument for you to answer," Dann said.

An RNZ spokesperson said the organisation had a rigourous editorial policy that demanded its work was always underpinned by fairness, accuracy, independence, respect and decency.

"This was a robust political interview where our interviewer conducted himself in a professional manner," the spokesperson said in a statement.

"RNZ was recently recognised as New Zealand's most trusted news brand. A result that is consistent with our own research that shows trust in RNZ has increased over the last year and a result that demonstrates our strategic focus on improving trust."

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