0 Tracy was tough, but Duncan's even tougher!

If Winston Peters thought Tracy Watkins was tough on him and Winston First yesterday, we hope he didn't read Duncan Garner's Dom-Post column. Headed Is this all you have, Winston? Garner is absolutely brutal on Peters; he begins thus:

Poor Winston, what's going on? It looks like you're really struggling to land any decent hits in Parliament these days. It all looks a bit limp and sad.
You've been there since 1978, save for three years in the wilderness before this term. If you ever had the answers then you've had ample time to share them.
Instead, what did we see this week? You abusing your privilege of free speech by spewing vicious bile at an MP who is in Parliament only because you wanted him there. Brendan Horan is hardly the first NZ First MP selected for loyalty rather than ability.
Calling Horan the "Jimmy Savile of New Zealand politics" was evil and cowardly – and you know it. If anyone makes any sort of claim against you, you're quick to threaten legal action and demand retractions and apologies. But when you're the one dishing it out those rules don't apply: you can waltz into Parliament and get all the protection you need. 

"Evil and cowardly"; that's as trenchant a statement as we've seen a New Zealand journalist make against an MP for many years. And Duncan Garner doesn't do it under parliamentary privilege either!

Garner continues:

I can't help but point out the irony of it all to you. I remember covering a speech you made in Kawerau in 2008 and you had Horan along as your little sycophantic sidekick.
Horan was in awe of you, banging on to the journos about how you were an honest and loyal man who only wanted what was right for New Zealand. He told us you never took money from Owen Glenn and everyone was wrong to be questioning your integrity and honesty. Horan was really fired up that afternoon.
So how does it feel now he's firing a few at you? Suddenly the spending from your parliamentary leader's fund looks questionable – despite your denials.
And Horan's allegations might just be sticking too. Did you spend $20,000 on a computer system to aid your NZ First Party? That money you and all the other parties have in those slush funds has never been transparent.
Last week, before all this chaos, you were promising to take out Judith Collins. But when you pulled out your gun it merely went pop. 

But then comes the really scary bit:

Yet, despite your miserable week, I still can't write you off.
I was there in 1996 when you promised to get rid of Jim Bolger, Bill Birch and Jenny Shipley. I remember chasing you down Lambton Quay for weeks during the coalition negotiations. You loved the attention and you're at it again.
Here we are 18 years later and not much has really changed. You're still the potential king-maker and you like it like that.
David Cunliffe has flung the door open to you by shunning the Greens' offer to campaign as a Labour-Greens government.
That suits you – we know you don't like the Greens. It's why you couldn't go with Labour in 1996 – you didn't want to share power with the Alliance in a three-party coalition. 
Now we're back to square one. You've started talking about "bottom lines" again. Yet on really simple, straightforward questions you refuse to give a straightforward answer.
Yes, you've had some victories over the years, free healthcare for the under 6s and the Gold Card – but is there anything else after 36 years?
Now immigration is bubbling away as an issue again – just like 1996 all over again.
Yes, 98,000 people arrived in New Zealand last year and 65,000 left – but the fact is most of those coming here were Kiwis returning home. A small fraction of them were actually immigrants from another land. But let's not let the facts get in the way during the election campaign.
Really, Winston, I reckon the public is tired of all these silly games. It feels like you've become entertainment for the stupid and sycophantic, who don't take the state of the nation too seriously at all.
But still I think you'll scrape together the 5 per cent support to make it back to Parliament (which, of course, means that 95 per cent of voters don't want you). But 5 per cent is all you need and that will be enough to make John Key's life hell.
After 36 years, is the nuisance factor really all you have to offer? 

Yes Dear Readers; it's 36 years since Winston Peters first entered Parliament in 1978. And what does he have to show for it. He's been a Minister three times, without ever having served a full three-year term. Jim Bolger and Jenny Shipley fired him, and Helen Clark stood him down over the Owen Glenn donation and all the lies he told about that. He's brought such characters as Tuku "Underpants" Morgan, Ron "Fingers" Mark, Richard "Wogistan" Prosser, Andrew "Leaky" Williams and Asenati Lole-Taylor into Parliament. He has attacked immigrants, especially Chinese immigrants.

What will be Winston's legacy? A career of unfulfilled potential? New Zealand's pre-eminent conspiracy theorist? A lifetime achievement award for his contribution to the whisky industry? Or will a seat be saved in his honour at the Green Parrot Cafe in Wellington?

Winston Peters was once one of the most formidable politicians in New Zealand. In 2014 however, he is a far cry from that. The elderly and the rednecks may get him back for one more term, but it will be tight.  We really hope that come election night, Winston First falls slightly below the 5% mark.

There should be no place in our Parliament for a man who, under parliamentary privilege, likens another MP to an alleged serial child abuser and paedophile. Kudos to Duncan Garner for his denouncement of Peters' actions this week.

0 Winston First is transparent. Yeah right.

Brendan Horan promised to dish dirt on his former party yesterday, and he was as good as his word. Unfortunately, Winston Peters wasn't there; perhaps he was keeping a low profile after his disgraceful behaviour on Tuesday. The Herald reports:

While he denied he was running away from a fight, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters left his MPs to defend the party against claims by independent MP Brendan Horan the party misused taxpayer funding to raise cash and seek votes.
After weeks of ill-tempered exchanges between Mr Peters and his ousted caucus member, Mr Horan yesterday fronted up in Parliament with what he said was proof of misuse of parliamentary funding by the party.
Mr Horan claimed NZ First had spent as much as $20,000 in parliamentary funding from Mr Peters' leader's budget to develop and operate "taxpayer-funded software for party political purposes such as campaigning and fundraising".
Mr Horan also said NZ First parliamentary staff were working on running the Vanguard software during the election year.
"This is a clear breach of Parliamentary Service guidelines.

"I call on the leader of the party to open his leader's budget accounts to the scrutiny of the Speaker first and then the public of New Zealand."
Rules for parliamentary funding are intended to ensure the money is not used for party political purposes and the Parliamentary Service rules of conduct state that parliamentary staff, must, in the course of their work "avoid electioneering, political party business (i.e. acting for the non-parliamentary branch of the party, such as political party administration, fundraising or campaign related activities), and other actions that are party political in nature".
Mr Horan said the public had "a right to know what their money is being used for and whether it is being used legally" and last night confirmed he had lodged a complaint with Speaker David Carter. Mr Carter's office did not respond to requests for comment.

We commend Mr Horan for standing up to the man who unilaterally sacked him, in a manner totally contrary to the principles of fairness and natural justice. Here, courtesy of In the House is his Budget Debate speech from yesterday afternoon:

The worst aspect of this was the attempts by Winston First lobby-fodder MP's Barbara Stewart, Richard Prosser and Andrew Williams to deny Mr Horan a voice. There were repetitive, unsuccessful points of order, all of which were over-ruled by the Assistant Speaker. And when Horan came to try to table documents in support of his allegations, the NZF MP's objected loudly on each occasion.

Now any MP has the right to object to leave being granted to table a document, without any reason being given. But yesterday's antics gave the perception, perhaps unfairly, that Horan had hit the jackpot, and that the Peters Party had been busted.

We look forward to hostilities being resumed, the next time Mr Peters considers a trip to Parliament worthy of his time. And we look forward to the outcome of the Speaker's investigation into these allegations of further wrongdoing by the party leader who was censured by his peers in 2008 for wilfully misleading them.

UPDATE: Over at Your NZ, Pete George notes that the Grey Power meeting Peters claimed to be attending is actually on today, and notes:

And very ironic. An MP well known for his attacks on others in Parliament seems unwilling to be on the receiving end of accusations.
There could be another reason for his absence yesterday, but why would he make up an excuse that is easily proven incorrect? Why would the event be removed from the NZ First website?
There’s a perception that Peters is trying to hide something, or hide from something.
His accusations on Tuesday have been called the worst seen in Parliament for a long time. Is NZ First reacting to that? Is Peters not prepared to face an accuser? Or is he trying to hide something?
He was Missing In Action and making things up yesterday. He would be one of the first to hold another MP to account for anything like that.

We could not agree more.