Winston Peters

Winston Raymond Peters (born 11 April 1945) is a New Zealand politician and leader of New Zealand First, a political party he founded in 1993. Peters has had a turbulent political career since entering Parliament in 1978. He served as Minister of Maori Affairs in the Bolger National Party Government before being sacked in 1991 and losing party endorsement for his Tauranga seat. He returned to Parliament as an independent, then formed his own party, New Zealand First. In Opposition, Peters became an outspoken critic of New Zealand immigration policies. As leader of New Zealand First, he held the balance of power following the 1996 election, enabling the National Party to form a coalition government and securing for himself the positions of Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer. However, the coalition dissolved in 1998 following the replacement of Bolger by Jenny Shipley as Prime Minister.

Following the dissolution of the coalition, New Zealand First split between supporters of Shipley's government and opponents. Support for the party collapsed at the 1999 election. He was defeated in his Tauranga seat in 2005, but remained in Parliament as a list MP and was given the Foreign Affairs, Senior Citizens and Racing portfolios in the Labour government. On 29 August 2008, he stood down as Foreign Affairs and Racing Minister pending a police investigation into accusations that he failed to declare a series of political donations received by his party. On 23 September 2008, Peters was censured by the Parliament for "knowingly providing false or misleading information on a return of pecuniary interests" over a $100,000 donation made in 2005.

Peters was born in the Northland city of Whangarei, New Zealand. He is of mixed ethnicity, his father being Māori and his mother being of Scottish descent. His iwi affiliation is Ngāti Wai and his clan is McInnes. Two of his brothers, Ian and Jim, have also been MPs, and another brother Ron has also stood as a New Zealand First candidate.

Shortly before the 1993 election, Peters established New Zealand First and retained his Tauranga seat. Another New Zealand First candidate, Tau Henare, unseated the Labour incumbent in Northern Maori, helping to convince people that New Zealand First was not simply Peters' personal vehicle.

In the 1996 elections, the MMP electoral system delivered a huge windfall to New Zealand First. The party won 17 seats and swept all of the Māori electorates. More importantly, it held the balance of power in Parliament. Neither National nor Labour had enough support to govern alone. Neither party could form a majority without the backing of New Zealand First, meaning Peters could effectively choose the next prime minister.

It was widely expected that he would throw his support to Labour and make Labour leader Helen Clark New Zealand's first female prime minister. Peters had bitterly criticised his former National colleagues, and appeared to promise that he would not even consider a coalition with Bolger. However, after over a month of negotiations with both parties, Peters decided to enter into coalition with National. Michael Laws, the party's campaign manager, later claimed that Peters had already decided to join forces with National and used his negotiations with Labour simply to win more concessions from Bolger.

In 2005, Peters received $100,000 to fund legal costs to challenge the election of Bob Clarkson to the Tauranga electorate. The money came from Owen Glenn, a wealthy businessman and philanthropist based in Monaco. Under parliamentary rules anything that is deemed to be a gift to MPs that is over the value of $500 must be relinquished. Peters denied knowing about the source of the money but this was not corroborated by his lawyer Brian Henry. Glenn has contradicted this testimony.

The Vela family, prominent in the racing industry, had donated $150,000 to Peters over a four year period. The payments were made in sums of $10,000 in order to remain within rules governing political party funding.

The Dominion Post published details from New Zealand First sources that before the 2005 election $25,000 had been donated to the party from Bob Jones via the Spencer Trust. The Trust is administered by Wayne Peters, a brother of Winston Peters. Jones confirmed that he had paid the money to the Spencer Trust and was asked by Winston Peters to make the donation. Peters denies that he had asked Jones for a donation to the party.The donation was not declared to the Electoral Commission as required by law.