Now, I think we may have just witnessed Winston Peters’ last major foreign policy speech as Foreign Minister, ever.
It is definitely the last one before the election, and if you follow the breadcrumbs he has been laying recently, it sounds like he does not want to be Foreign Minister next term.
He may want to stay home and do another job, perhaps Immigration Minister. And if that is true, then this is the last big speech for him, ever, as Foreign Minister.
He did not waste the speech.
He made some really excellent points. The one that I think bears repeating is that, for many on the left and many in the media, the only time that we as New Zealand are doing the right thing internationally is when we are disagreeing with the Americans, such as in our refusal to join the Iraq War in 2003 and our decision to go nuclear-free in the 1980s.
As he points out, it has become part of our national identity to be nuclear-free and to have this David-and-Goliath battle with the big, bad Americans.
But he suggested it is not cost-free. He hinted that he thought it was not actually the right call, especially with the nuclear-free policy.
He points out that we paid for that, and of course we did, because the nuclear-free policy was basically the end of our relationship with the US and ANZUS. That is without mentioning the possible lost opportunity in power generation at a time when we are paying so much for power.
But that is not really the point he is trying to make.
What he is saying is that shouting at the Americans publicly is not the definition of good foreign policy, even though that is the feel-good stuff that the left and the media love.
Actually, being able to choose who we shout at, and whether we do shout, is true independent foreign policy.
It is a point worth remembering when Helen Clark and Don Brash get upset on the subject and say we are cosying up to the Americans again.
As for Winston Peters, he is undoubtedly an annoyingly untrustworthy domestic politician when he is at home. But, for the most part, you cannot disagree: he has done a great job as Foreign Minister, has he not?
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