And the guy saying it is Winston Peters — Foreign Minister, Deputy PM, the bloke who’s meant to be charming Beijing and Washington in the same week. Reporters push on why nothing happens to a minister the PM himself just branded racist, and Luxon reaches for the flimsiest line in Aotearoa politics: “This is him talking in his New Zealand First capacity.” Right now, business owners in Sulphur City, white-knuckling through the worst trading conditions in years, turn up to hear from their PM, and get told they’ve got a “parent-child mentality.”