Larry Williams Drive

Now we’ve got to talk about Winston. If you hadn’t noticed yet - or maybe you didn’t believe it - take a look at Winston Peters’ State of the Nation speech yesterday and you’ll see the proof that this election is shaping up to be New Zealand First’s election. More than a thousand people turned up in Tauranga to hear him speak. They even had to use two overflow rooms. Compare that with the same speech last election, which was held in a church with a capacity of just 100. More importantly, New Zealand First used the event to announce they’ve recruited Alfred Ngaro, the former National Party MP. Now, it was a bit of a running joke in the crowd that they didn’t know who Alfred was - but commentators do. And I think most of us can see this for what it is: the recruitment of an incredibly well-liked former National MP with a strong Christian faith. That won’t offend Winston’s older voters - in fact, it’s likely to appeal to many of them. More significantly, it’s a signal of what’s happening and what could accelerat