Stench of Corruption around Winston & Sir Ian Taylor's Pettiness
Most preferred NZ leader - Why again?
Winston’s Rise
RNZ’s Guyon Espinor breaks another important story today, which can be summed up as the undeniable stench of corruption around NZ First leader Winston Peters.
According to analysis by RNZ, tobacco lobbying firm Bower Group Asia (BGA) considers the NZ First leader very “friendly” to pro-tobacco policies.
He’s called a “powerful leader” in the NZ political sphere and a “lifetime smoker, now on HEETs1 (vaping sticks)”
Later in the piece, we see that our country is considered by tobacco strategists as "a leading alternative nicotine delivery platform" whereby success here “may enable easier access to Australia".
That makes sense.
Tobacco companies use one jurisdiction as evidence in another and each market they gain access to provides their lobbyists with “justification” that their product is workable.
I’ve always said it was the reason the tobacco industy had to defeat smoke free repeal in NZ - they didn’t want it upheld as a model for other countries to follow. We would have been the first.2
It’s not the first time New Zealand First have been implicated in tobacco corruption scandals.
Last year, the Health Coalition Aotearoa, staffed by some of New Zealand’s most respected health researchers, called on NZ First to come clean on tobacco company document leaks by Philip Morris.3
It was revealed Philip Morris saw NZ First4 as easy targets to help them enact their desired goals i.e. to faciliate getting more favourable regulation for its showcase Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs) in NZ.
During the 2024 election, NZ First updated their policy position to include smoke free repeal days AFTER official voting started.
And as Nicola Willis says in this linked video after they win government, it is ACT and NZ First who insisted on the smoke free repeal, and National agreed to help fund tax cuts.
Later, Casey Costello quietly halved taxes on HTPs and promoted its use5 - exactly as Philip Morris desired - at a cost of over $200,000,000 to taxpayers.
The Health Coalition didn’t mince its words:
“This international tobacco industry giant has been spectacularly successful getting the National-led coalition Government to do exactly what it wants – keeping New Zealanders hooked for life on their addictive, harmful tobacco products.”
“Minister Costello claims to have no links to the tobacco industry. If that’s true then she has been manipulated her own party, and NZ First needs to be ejected from the Coalition partnership.”
It’s no small thing - tobacco is linked to 5000 death a year in NZ - that’s 13 Kiwis every single day.
The investigative article from Espinor is on RNZ: Nicotine lobbyists said Winston Peters was 'very powerful' and 'very industry friendly'
As I pointed out yesterday, Peters holds top billing for preferred leader in NZ at the moment - but I believe that is mainly because Coalition partners have sucked up most of the oxygen in the room, leaving scant coverage of NZ First antics.
There is plenty to be aghast about at the party - from attacks on our media, to allowing foreign companies to quite easily buy up our “sensitive lands and assets”, to opening up the doors for uber rich foreigners to buy homes, to inciting toxic culture wars, to inciting transphobia, to environmental destruction,
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Casey Costello and this Coalition government have even been able to get away with copying and pasting tobacco speaking points to NZ - and in Ministerial memos.
Even Shane Jones has received relatively little press despite his antics.
Winston Peters is undeniably powerful in this Coalition, and he is enjoying his rise in popularity and fortunes — for now.
PS
Peters told RNZ it would not respond to Espinor’s article in typical fashion -
"We get more views than that on just a single post on our Facebook page - not to mention the fact you likely wouldn't report our reply at all."
"We are not going to entertain the same deceitful attempt from you, using taxpayers' money, to attack our party."
An attack and a lie.
And here is Peters’ response on social media this morning - attacking Espinor directly, RNZ and telling his supporters not to trust or consume our public broadcaster:
What a far cry from the man who once spoke nobly about the critical importance of the Fourth Estate during the Ardern era.
What a stench.
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