Evacuees from at least five former homes have found safe haven in Winston Peters’ big gazebo. 

Not since the formation of United Future in 1995 has one party provided such a refuge for the exiles of existing parties. 

New Zealand First’s latest recruit, announced yesterday, is Elliot Ikilei, an old New Conservative and a spokesperson for the lobby group Hobson’s Pledge. An outspoken social conservative who was installed by the New Conservative Party board in place of an ousted Leighton Baker after the 2020 election, he joins a long line of high-profile figures who have found a new, happier home around Winston Peters’ glowing brazier.  

Of course, New Zealand First – like every new party represented in parliament since the advent of MMP – was born out of another party. In its case, National. Peters had been a cabinet minister under Jim Bolger; he was widely tipped as a future leader of the party and for a time there he routinely topped preferred prime minister polls. 

As New Zealand First’s original and only leader since its 1993 foundation, Peters has found a way to do the business of government with either of the majors, going with National in 1996 and 2023, and with Labour in 2005 and 2017. 

It’s that 2017 arrangement that prompted Nicola Willis and Christopher Luxon to kick a little sand back in their coalition partner’s face the other day, stage-whispering that this was the guy who installed Jacinda Ardern on the ninth floor of the Beehive. It seemed to touch a nerve.

A recent poll by Curia for the Taxpayers’ Union found 56% of NZ First supporters preferred a National-led government, with just 10% wanting a Labour-led alternative and 34% saying they were unsure.

But, as Peters declares his pre-election hand more definitively than he has ever before, just where do his MPs and candidates sit? 

Before we look at the current crop, it’s worth noting that since the start, New Zealand First has (much like Act at its outset) provided a haven for dissidents and outcasts from both sides of the aisle.

After the 1996 election, the party’s caucus had 17 MPs – still a record – including all of the Māori seats. Of those 17, five had previous affiliation to National, including two former MPs (Peters and Peter McCardle) and five were Labour inclined, whether as active supporters, candidates or, in the case of Jack Elder, as a former MP. No wonder those negotiations were such a high-wire affair. 

As for today, there’s a caucus of eight, including six evacuees of one form or another.

Winston Peters, to start at the top of Mt Olympus, is a former National minister. 

Shane Jones, his deputy, is a former Labour minister. 

Casey Costello was once an Act Party candidate. And she was also, like Ikilei, both a Hobson’s Choice spokesperson and a board member for the New Conservatives  (previously and since called the Conservative Party).

Mark Patterson once sought a National candidacy in Clutha Southland.

Jenny Marcroft used to be a member of the Labour Party. 

Andy Foster is, of course, a former mayor of Wellington. Before that term he’d run for NZ First, but was also once a National member.

As for the newcomer candidates announced, Stuart Nash surprised nobody recently by announcing he will contest Napier for NZ First. He has both Labour blood, as great-grandson of Walter Nash, and served as a Labour cabinet minister across two terms. 

Alfred Ngaro introduced himself, or at least meant to, as an NZ First candidate at a party rally in March. He was, of course, a minister in the previous National government, and latterly the leader of a party called NewZeal, inviting the obvious question: and?

Jamie Cleine is the party’s candidate for West Coast. He was previously mayor of Buller District and is also a former National member. 

Not to forget Elliot Ikilei, former leader of the New Conservatives.

(Taine Randell was once courted by the Labour Party, but he turned them down.)

Where does that leave us? Let’s engage the Spinoff data visualisation laboratory …

In summary, then, Winston Peters’ appetite for widespread immigration may be limited, but when it comes to his own party’s borders, the door is open, it would appear, to all stripes, to the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.