John MacDonald: Winston, just accept you got it wrong and apologise

Author: John MacDonald,
Publish Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2026, 12:33pm

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The weird thing about Winston Peters is that, when he’s overseas, he’s all Henry Kissinger or Kofi Annan on it. The ultimate diplomat.

But then he comes back here, goes through Customs, and turns into Nigel Farage.

Which is why, on one hand, we shouldn’t be all that surprised by the appalling things he said to Chinese-born Green MP Lawrence Xu-Nan. Comments which, quite rightly, are being described as racist. And which he needs to apologise for.

Politicians across the political spectrum are saying the same thing - including some of his own coalition colleagues. National’s Simeon Brown is one of them.

Because, of course, telling someone to go back to where they came from is racist. It’s also dumb, when this person you’re accusing of only being here five minutes - as Winston Peters did - has lived here more than 30 years.

Christopher Luxon, though, is being Christopher Luxon. At least he isn’t taking Winston’s side, but the strongest thing he seems too capable of saying is that Winston Peters has a long track record of making inappropriate comments. And that what he said was “unhelpful”.

Which just plays into those tired old excuses that some people keep making for the NZ First leader. You know: “Oh, that’s old Winston up to his usual tricks”.

And, yes, he is up to his usual tricks. But is that an excuse for such appalling, antiquated behaviour? Not in my book.

And that’s why he has to apologise. He can’t be sacked as Foreign Affairs Minister. So he has to apologise.
So how this all started, is that Peters was speaking in Parliament’s debating chamber and this Green MP - who was born in China and moved here when he was a child in 1994 - started a bit of the usual heckling that MPs on all sides of the House like to do.

Peters was talking about the Covid inquiry and Lawrence Xu-Nan called out, asking if he was vaccinated.
Winston wasn’t happy about that and said: “Go back to your own country. You only came here just five minutes ago. Go back to your own country, that's where they lie like a flat fish. But they don't lie like that here, alright. This is what we call democracy.”

Saying: “This is called a democracy, unlike what you’re used to.”

Not surprisingly, China isn’t happy.

And former Trade Minister and former Speaker of the House Sir Lockwood Smith says that’s going to be a bit of a problem. Because China now knows how he feels about our biggest trading partner.

The other thing, is that if racism isn’t tolerated anywhere else - if it isn’t tolerated at schools and universities and at workplaces - then why should it be tolerated at Parliament?

Answer is: it shouldn’t.

What’s more, the Human Rights Commissions says this on its website: “In 1972, New Zealand signed up to the UN’s International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. This requires the government to take action to eliminate racism and racial discrimination and promote understanding between all races in Aotearoa New Zealand.”

For now, Winston Peters is part of New Zealand’s government - one of its most senior ministers - and, as part of that government, he is obliged to honour this commitment.

And, instead of pushing back and saying that those of us who think he’s behaving like an out-of-touch fossil are just pearl clutchers indulging in faux outrage, Winston Peters needs to pull his head in and apologise.

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