New Zealand First leader Winston Peters appeared unable to explain the costings of two of his party's policies when pushed on Q+A this morning, but suggested he would shortly be releasing a manifesto.
Throughout the interview, Peters repeatedly accused interviewer Jack Tame of being "desperate" and "inexperienced" — suggesting the interview was a "vindictive attack".
However, the party leader was unable to provide any specific costings for policies such as funding aged residential care and dedicated gang prisons.
Last week's 1News Verian poll showed New Zealand First's party vote at 6% — in alignment with other polls which indicate Winston Peters re-entering Parliament.
Without Peters, National and ACT would only have 60 seats under the numbers, meaning Christopher Luxon would need New Zealand First's support in order to govern.
Speaking to Q+A, the party leader and former deputy prime minister was questioned about two of his over two dozen policies.
The party has promised to push for new gang-only prisons, but Peters appeared unable to answer the specific number of prisoners they would hold.
"I'm not gonna sit here and have a fiscal argument with you when you don't know what you're talking about. The prison officers that I saw, backed New Zealand First's proposal. They say it will work and if it happens, they say we will have far less reoffending."
The latest 1News Verian Poll results come just over two weeks out from the election. (Source: 1News)
Peters said he had developed fiscal detail around the policy: "Well I have actually."
However he did not provide any policy costings on-air when pushed by Q+A.
He was later questioned about his party's aged care policy.
Peters gave a figure of how many care workers there would be, but wouldn't be drawn on how many people his new policy would cover when pressed.
"If you had any understanding of the situation, it's the people that care for them that are going to be the cost. That's the figure," he said.
He added: "You're not going to sit here like an amateur not knowing the facts. As a former treasurer, I do understand the subject."
When pressed further about his policy costings, Peters said: "Can I just tell TV1, you're a taxpayer-owned operation, the taxpayers are entitled to have a proper interview here. Not you thinking you're going to do what you did last time."
A group of Māori leaders are urging National leader Christopher Luxon to call out David Seymour and Winston Peters for their "racist undertones". (Source: 1News)
Speaking to Tame, he added: "I'm gonna answer that question if you'll shut up for five seconds. Would you do that? Tell me you're going to do that before I answer."
Peters dismissed an estimate of the policy which ranged in the billions.
"The answer is there's a range of residential care — go and have a look out there. There are some who are hard up against it, as we speak.
"You've got all sorts of care systems which cannot get staff. They're all in a crisis, and we've said that we're going to look at that and find the gaps in the system and attempt to fix that up. Now that cannot be answered in the way that you just answered it."
When further pressed about fiscal detail in his aged care policy, Peters appeared to suggest he would release more detail later today.
"Our manifesto comes out later today. Why don't you wait? We made sure that we'll have it out, given the huge PREFU [Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update] gaps and holes.
"We made sure that we got to make sure our stacks up. But of course, you couldn't wait, you didn't ask me whether we had a manifesto."
Q+A with Jack Tame is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
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