Winston Peters channels ‘make New Zealand first again’, wants NZ out of the Paris Agreement

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says his party knows more about banks than the largest law firm in the country does. 

This was in response to law firm Chapman Tripp’s views on NZ First's ‘woke bank’ bill, which were published earlier this month.  

Chapman Tripp lawyers said the Bill, which is actually called the Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment (Duty to Provide Financial Services) Amendment Bill, was flawed in “many technical ways”.

NZ First’s bank bill would require financial institutions to offer financial services to all consumers unless there was a valid and verifiable commercial reason not to do so.

“In our view, as written, the Bill would impose a further layer of bureaucracy (record keeping of commercial reasons and their verifications for any market segmentation decisions) rather than meaningful change,” Chapman Tripp’s Penny Sheerin, Emma Peart and Tim Williams said in early March.

Interest.co.nz asked Peters for his response to Chapman Tripp’s view that the party’s bill was full of technical flaws at a press conference on Sunday, following Peters’ speech at NZ First’s State of the Nation event in Christchurch.

Peters kept it short and sweet.

“ [...] with great respect to Chapman Tripp, we know more about what happens in Australia with respect to those banks than Chapman Tripp does,” he said.

Peters then asked who had paid Chapman Tripp telling interest.co.nz it was their job to ask them.

“How much are they paying? Hundreds of thousands of dollars of advice legally so to speak to try and throw doubt on a guy called Winston Peters,” he said.

“No you’re not going to win that way but you've got to do your job.”

Peters rounded off his reply by commenting that perhaps he needed to take some time off and start being a journalist for a while.

NZ First’s bank bill was proposed by NZ First MP Andy Foster after it was reported that BNZ had told a coal mining company it would close all of its accounts by 2030. 

BNZ has also came under fire in December 2024 when the bank revealed it was planning to wind up all outstanding loans to petrol stations over the next six years to reduce or eliminate exposure to fossil fuel risk.

Foster’s bill was drawn from the ballot last month and will be debated in Parliament this term. 

'Make New Zealand First Again'

Peters' speech at NZ First’s state of the nation meeting on Sunday afternoon was full of his usual vigour but lacked anything concrete in terms of policy that his party wants to roll out before the 2026 election. 

Pro-Palestine protestors were lined up outside the James Hay Theatre while the meeting was held and chanted “shame, shame on Winston” amongst other things while police officers watched from outside and inside the building. 

During the first half hour of Peters’ speech, at least six protestors interrupted and shouted over Peters which caused audience uproar. Each time a protester was removed from the audience, NZ First supporters clapped and chanted “out, out, out”. 

In his speech, Peters didn’t give much of an idea of policies that the party plans – or wants to – run with through the 2026 election either.

It does, however, appear to be likely themed around ‘Make New Zealand First Again’, a comment Peters made sure to trumpet near the end of his hour-long speech.

A point Peters was keen to hammer home in his speech was his views on the Paris Agreement, which NZ joined back in 2016 under the then National Government.

New Zealand is one of 196 countries that signed up to the Paris Agreement, the legally binding international climate change treaty that came into force in 2016. 

Countries who have signed up to the Agreement have a commitment to limit climate change.

Peters said some of the world’s largest economies have no intention of following through with their commitments to the Paris Agreement.

“That means that no matter what we do, our sacrifice will make no difference,” Peters said.

He said it was “common sense” that NZ instead invested into its own environment, which got enthusiastic applause from his audience.

Peters' view of NZ’s role in the Paris Agreement now means he has something in common with ACT leader David Seymour who will be taking over as deputy Prime Minister from Peters at the end of May.

Seymour said in February that NZ should consider withdrawing from the Paris Agreement as “half of the world appears to be pulling out of it”.

Peters also said on Sunday that the political left is no longer “fighting for the worker”.

“Labour sadly no longer represents the workers. They have only forgotten what a worker is or even what a worker stands for,” he said.

Following the NZ First’s event, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said while Peters was “yelling at protestors and channeling Donald Trump”, Labour was focussed on what really mattered which was jobs, health and homes.

“This Coalition drove the economy into a recession and now they’re trying to distract from the damage they’ve done with even more division,” Hipkins said.