Winston Peters' six week spell as Acting PM combined two of his favourite things, says 1 NEWS' Corin Dann: Conflict and "being the centre of attention".
The host of TVNZ's Q+A program offered a recap of his interview with the NZ First leader last night, and was complimentary in his assessment of the stand-in job he did leading the country.
"I think he had the time of his life. There’s no question this is a guy who his entire life has coveted being Prime Minister. He loves being the centre of attention," Dann said.
"To be fair, he did a pretty reasonable job while Jacinda Ardern has been away.
"I think the critical thing to remember is, it does seem as though Jacinda Ardern and Winston Peters have a good relationship and they get on well, and while that continues this Government will be in much better shape."
Ms Ardern is expected to return to work this week, following the birth of Neve.
The prominence of Mr Peters' name during the National Party conference over the weekend, being described by president Peter Goodfellow as an "irrational bullet" National dodged , would have also fueled the political veteran’s fire, Dann said.
"It's just his style. I mean Winston would have been thrilled that he managed to force his way in National’s conference," Dann said.
"Like this is gold for him, this is how he operates. He operates on the sniping and stuff, that's where he gets his oxygen."
National Party President Peter Goodfellow had said his party "dodged a whiskey-swilling, cigarette-smoking, double-breasted and irrational bullet" in Winston Peters’ decision to form a coalition Government with Labour last October.
Corin Dann said Mr Peters was actually "pretty angry" with the comments.
"He was sort of hinting, threatening, sort of saying 'don't say that again' sort of stuff, which is typical Winston but nonetheless it suggests the bad blood," Dann said.
"The point I'd make though is, you're going to see this sort of stuff, they’re going to be firing at each other, 'I hate you, we hate you, rah rah rah'.
"Come six months out form the election, forget about it, they’ll still be potentially able to work together.
"We could still be in a situation in 2020 where Winston could still go with National, he can’t rule it out, and they can’t rule it out either.
"Although I think it's still more likely that if this Government is travelling reasonably well that he would go with them."
TVNZ's Q+A political program is now airing 9.30pm each Sunday.
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