Back in 2005, Winston Peters gave an utterly vile speech called "The End of Tolerance", in which he demonised Muslims, calling them "two-faced" and a front for extremists. After last month's act of terrorism targeting Muslim New Zealanders, you'd have expected him to have reconsidered those views and his role in encouraging and legitimising hate. Sadly, he has not:
Winston Peters isn't backing down over comments he made about Muslims during a 2005 speech titled The End of Tolerance.
[...]
Mr Peters told Morning Report the comments were made in the context of recent terror attacks in London and that Imams around the world were saying the same thing.
"I was talking about extremism and I don't resile from that."
And that pretty much settles it. Winston is unrepentant. And that means he needs to be fired. There should be no place in our parliament, let alone in Cabinet, let alone as Deputy Prime Minister, for a man who promotes this sort of hate against our fellow New Zealanders. It is simply a matter of political hygiene: Winston Peters must go.
