Winston Peters has hit back and argued with a heckler who derailed a media stand-up in the capital this morning.
Minister for Rail Peters was speaking to reporters about new rail funding while at Wellington Railway Station, alongside Minister of Transport Chris Bishop, when he was interrupted.
The heckler could be heard saying, “a load of bollocks, Winston”.
Peters replied: “Who said bollocks? You look like you look like bollocks mate. Go look in the mirror, sunshine.”
The exchange then quickly descended into a yelling match between the pair, with Peters telling the man to “naff off”.
“Why don’t you naff off! Yeah, look at you. Come to get a headline?”
The heckler said, “You’re 80 years old now, isn’t it time you naffed off?”
The near minute-long argument between the veteran politician and the apparent morning commuter continued before Peters ended the media conference and walked off.
“Get lost!” he said.
Before the back-and-forth between Peters and the heckler, he was asked whether he regretted holding his media conference at a busy train station with trains and thousands of passengers passing through.
“No, I only got heckled once,” he said.
Peters, who is the leader of New Zealand First, was announcing new funding to upgrade rail reliability as part of the Government’s upcoming Budget. The Rail Minister made the announcement ahead of Budget 2025, happening on Thursday.
“We want railways to succeed for this country – rail freight backs our business, and business backs our cities and provinces,” he said.
